


My Fd!au fanfictions

by Theonlygamergost



Category: Fd!au, Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft Youtubers
Genre: Family Dynamic AU, Possible mention of blood, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 34,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25858357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonlygamergost/pseuds/Theonlygamergost
Summary: I'm new to Ao3 and I'm dumping here all of my fanfictions about the Family Dynamic universe created by the lovely @/antarctic_bay on Twitter and Tumblr!
Comments: 65
Kudos: 698
Collections: All of Gost’s Fd!au fanfics





	1. Introductoin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a small introduction to me, what I write and all that stuff

Hello! My name is Gost and Welcome to My Fd!au Fanfiction Folder! Here I will publish all of my fics regarding the au, don't worry, each chapter is a one-shot (apart from the ones labelled part 1/2 of course) 

If you don't know what the fd!au is, go check out @/anractic-bay either on Twitter or Tumblr, they are the creator of the au!

Now, a bit about myself, shall we UwU?

My Tumblr is where I am the most active ( https://www.tumblr.com/blog/theonlygamergost ) but I also have a Twitter ( https://twitter.com/theonlygost ) but I don't post much there.

I will try to interact with you guys as much as possible, so I'm very sorry if I don't answer your comment ;-;

Well, with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy my fanfics!!!


	2. The Pink hair prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This fic is what I imagined happened before and after the beautiful fanart of @/sleepyboisinc on Tumblr where Techno is looking at a mirror with his brothers in the background.
> 
> I dedicate this fanfiction to her, and to the wonderful person who grammatically corrects my fanfictions, who also loves Techno with pink hair.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Wilbur and Tommy decided to pull a prank on Techno by dying his hairs pink... Techno would never admit it, but he secretly loves it

Laying on the couch wasn't the most exciting thing, let's be honest, but Wilbur and Tommy had already finished their homework so they had nothing better to do.  
Tommy had his legs hooked on the back of the couch, eyes wandering around the upside-down room meanwhile, Wilbur was concentrated on a strand of hair that reached the front of his face, making it go up and down with each blow of air.

The humidity made it impossible for the two to go outside, so staying inside where the air conditioning was softly doing its work was the best option.  
”I’m booooored” Tommy whined, playfully slapping his brother's legs who were placed on his stomach.  
”Yeah, same… Wanna play smash?” Wilbur proposed.

”Not really… I'm also hungry…” he swung his legs faster in protest. “Wanna go to the mall? We could go laugh at womans' products”  
Wilbur looked at the younger brother in disgust, "You're weird…”

Tommy stared back in silence for a few moments, ”You have a better idea?” Wilbur looked at the clock, it was three thirty-five pm…  
”Only if we get a doughnut or something to eat along the way”

And so they did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wait wait wait, wait” Tommy moved his hands around while Wilbur was slurping a box of juice.  
“So you're telling me that women put all of this stuff on their faces before going to bed?! There is like- five different creams and each one says to put a different one before and after using the one you are applying?! How?!”

Wilbur shrugged, Tommy sighed. “You know what, I kinda don't want to know...What’s over here?”  
He moved along the shelves until Wilbur grabbed his T-shirt, making him yelp in surprise.

“I wonder what you would look like with back hair…” he sipped on his juice again, “Wha- why?! No! Why would I dye my hair- oh” He stopped his ramble as he followed Wilbur’s finger who was pointing at the hair dye box. “I've always wondered how these things worked…” Tommy picked up the box with the blue dye, turning it around as he started reading the instructions: “Put on the gloves before applying the dye… wait, bleach? You have to pour bleach on your hair?!”  
Wilbur almost spitted out his juice as he started laughing, gaining a few confused looks by passersby.

“You idiot! You don't pour bleach on your hair! You apply a special bleach that's used to make your hair white so that the dye looks better. How do you think people dye their hair blonde when it's naturally black?!”

“I-I don't know! I never thought of that!” Wilbur continued laughing as Tommy placed the small package back, just to get his attention caught by the one next to it.  
“Pink dye? Oh Wilbur you should dye your hair pink, if you want I’ll buy it for you~” Tommy annoyingly shaked the package in front of Wilbur's face.

“I’m one hundred percent sure it will look way better on you Tommy~ Why don’t I buy it for you~”  
The exchange went on for a little bit until a shop assistant asked them if they needed help to find something, which surprised them and scared them off. But since it had been less than an hour, they sat at a bar and started chatting.

Wilbur and Tommy didn't get many chances to sit down and talk one on one without their brothers or phones interfering, so it was quite nice.  
Even if there was a bit of an age gap between the two, anyone could be surprised how alike they thought and acted:  
Wilbur was too chaotic for his age and Tommy was very mature for his, so the two (when they aren't trying to fuck each other over) met at a middle point in which they enjoyed the other’s company just like school friend of their age.

“Who do you think would dye their hair?” Wilbur swallowed the bite he was munching on, “Like- out of us or in general?”  
Tommy laid back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head “Out of us brothers yeah... I wouldn't want to do that but maybe Phil would like to… I don't know… dye his hair black? He told us he had a bit of an emo phase didn’t he?” Wilbur took another bite of his donut and munched on it while thinking, meanwhile Tommy took his phone out to see a message from Deo that was left half an hour ago.

“As much as Phil had an emo phase, I don’t think it passed his mind to dye his hair… and I personally like my hair as it is” Tommy looked up from his phone and noticed a guy with a purple strand walking by.

Without really thinking, he mumbled out “What about Techno, I could see him dye a strand of hair for a bet…” Wilbur looked at Tommy and followed his gaze to the guy he was staring at.

“Yeah, I could definitely see Techno doing that...he’d probably choose a stupid bright colour like pink too… there’s no way he’d do it spontaneously though…”  
As Wilbur ended the sentence, it all clicked.

Their eyes widened and they looked at each other.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking Tommy?”  
“I’m quite sure I am Will”  
They both got up out of their seats and rushed to the Supermarket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Welcome back boys!”  
Phil was already behind the stove, moving around with his “Kiss the Cook” apron, meanwhile, Techno was on the kitchen counter, putting away the stationery and workbooks from his study session.

Tommy threw himself on the couch while Wilbur playfully pushed Techno in passing next to him… but the plan didn’t work as planned.  
“What did you buy? It’s rare for you to buy anything” Phil noticed the plastic bag in Wilbur’s hand, making the younger brother turn as well.  
If Will could punch Tommy in this moment, he would.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, how do we get this in the house without Phil or Techno realizing it?” Tommy shrugged. They had just gotten out of the supermarket, making their way to the exit, the plastic back was going to attract too much attention, so Wilbur was trying to find a way around the problem at hand.

“What about putting it in your backpack? it’s pretty empty and the box fits, we can put in the plastic bag too”  
“N-no! That's a terrible idea!”

Wilbur sighed, “How is it a terrible idea? Don’t tell me you don’t want to carry it, it doesn’t weigh shit Tommy!”  
“S-Still…” he rubbed his arm stressfully “Th-The plastic bag will be just fine! I-I’m sure of it!”  
Wilbur wasn’t persuaded with his brothers' behaviour, but he let it pass, hoping that it was going to work

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah no, it didn’t work.

“I… uh… bought a… an air freshener! Yeah that!”  
Phil looked at him confused, slowly drying his hand with a rag.”Why would you buy an air freshener if you can just open your window forehead”

After almost getting caught by Phil, Wilbur managed to escape into his room.

In full dirty-crime boy style, he immediately hid the hair dye in one of his messy drawers, hoping to use it as soon as possible on the unaware victim.

Who needs 1st of April to pull pranks when it’s free real estate all year?  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The days kept proceeding as slow as always, classes were boring and the heat wasn't going away either.

Tommy and Wilbur were still on high alert for the perfect time to act on their plan, but so far, their ”victim” aka beloved brother Technoblade wasn't being very… cooperative.  
Techno’s life could be explained pretty easily in a circle-of-life style:  
Wake up, school, after school nap, homework and video games till three am, repeat.

There is no sign of food in his cycle because that can change pretty drastically from eating five times a day to just a midnight potato to not consuming anything for twenty-four hours.  
With his schedule having place in either his room or class, the two pranksters needed an ”anomaly” in his day… Which could either take months or in their case, just under a week.

Techno was sitting at the kitchen counter, half-reading a book, half falling asleep. Tommy and Wilbur were chilling on the couch, patiently waiting for him to fall asleep, he probably pulled an all-nighter and the exhaustion was catching up to him.

As his head finally stopped moving around and he indulged into the deep sleep, this was their time to act.

”Are you sure he won't wake up? We have to wash his hair! If he wakes up Wilbur we’re dead”. The two were whispering to slim the chances of their brother waking up.  
”If we aren't loud or drop something we should be fine” Wilbur reassured him while gently shaking the small bottle of bleach, ”he's a surprisingly deep sleeper so… We should be good”

The younger one gulped as the older took a deep breath.  
They wasted no time and got instantly to work: one shot, one opportunity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Techo yawned and stretched his arms as he woke up from his nap, the kitchen counter wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep but getting up and facepalming onto his bed was way too complicated and energy consuming, so he passed out on there.

Phil had told him countless times to stop pulling all-nighters, yet every time he would, he would always find Phil in the kitchen pulling one himself.

Sleep is for the weak anyway.

He got off the stool he was napping on when a snicker from behind him caught his attention.  
Tommy and Wilbur were sitting on the couch, the older one was containing his laughter with a hand on his mouth and the younger one was staring at him, snickering to himself.

“What are you doing? Why are you laughing- look, I was tired and getting to my room was too much effort” he passed a hand between his hairs and wondered why they were… humid?  
“We weren’t laughing at your sleeping face-” “YES! We were totally laughing at your sleeping face!” Wilbur abruptly interrupted Tommy’s thought, softly elbowing him on the side. “Sorry bro… but you know its funny to see you sleep with your mouth open and drooling”  
Techno tilted his head to one side, their interaction seemed suspicious, but these were his brothers we're talking, so he just shrugged it off.

“You guys are weird… I’m going to the bathroom” As he turned around he heard a bit of movement behind him, he chose to ignore it.

There was no need to turn on the light, the window allowed enough of it to brighten the room, plus, Techno was still half-asleep, so more light would have just caused him more trauma, nothing else.

As soon as he got to the sink, he splashed his tired face with cold water, not understanding if the light pink stains on the white ceramic were caused by the tiredness or were actually there.

He blindly grabbed the towel and dried his face, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he blinked once then twice before actually realizing what was going on.  
“WHAT THE-?” he reached for his hair and realized that the mirror wasn’t lying to him: his hair was light pink.

“BHUAHAH- look at his face Wilbur!!!” His two brothers faces appeared from the doorframe, one laughing his ass off, “Oh Techno~ I didn’t know you liked pink THAT much!” and the other one making fun of him.

“YOU GUYS DID THIS?!” his voice wasn’t supposed to go that high, so the cracks were making the situation even more hilarious. “COME HERE YOU LITTLE-!”  
The two bolted for the living room, Techno hot on their trails.

“I’m hom- WHAT THE SHITS?!” Phil, opening the entrance door almost gave Wilbur a concussion by smacking him in the face.  
He didn’t even have the time to get angry at him because Techno popped into view, shocking him even more.

“Oh… looking good Techno! I-I didn't know you liked pink that much” Phil was surprised, as all older brothers would be if their younger’s would dye their hair unexpectedly. Looking at his feet in embarrassment he softly murmured while grabbing his arm “Yeah… Wilbur and Tommy did this, not me”.

“WHAT?!” The two culprits of the whole mess snickered at the older brothers' shock, meanwhile Techno pulled his hair enough to see their new colour.  
He still wasn't sure if he liked it.

“Tommy, Will, you realize that he’s going to have to go to school like that?”  
As the words came out of his mouth, Techno’s eyes filled with horror.

“I COMPLETELY FORGO- NO I’M NOT DOING THAT NOPE, NOPE, NOPE GOODBYE” he spinned one eighty degrees and slammed the doors of his room, making the others die of laughter.

Wilbur got to his door and knocked, barely containing himself “Omg- Techno come out! It’ll be fine!”

A muffled “I want to die” came from the other side, making them laugh even more.

Techno will never admit this, but he was smiling, back touching the door separating him from his brothers, hands touching his dyed hair:  
He loved it, he loved the new colour, his favourite, pink. He loved his brothers for doing this to him, but most importantly, he hated that the world was going to have to see him like that.


	3. Kitchen encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction was written before me and my lovely editor Jay were working together... so please bear with the incredible amount of grammatical errors... English is not my first language :D  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Techno goes in the kitchen to get a simple glass of water at three am... he definitely wasn’t expecting his brother to be there
> 
> Warning!: just a ton fluff
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Techno allowed his forehead to drop onto his keyboard as he saved his essay, he had been working on it all night since the due was tomorrow... well, technically today.

It was almost three am as he turned off his computer, tired as hell because of the lack of sleep, the wind whirl of words and phrases in his mind definitely didn't help either.

He was absolutely ready to jump on his comfortable bed and get carried away in the beautiful realm of sweet sweet sleep, but if he did that, he would not be able to get back up to get water, so he opted to do that first.

However, going into the kitchen to drink a glass of water wasn't an idea he was fond of since Phil, due to the lack of rooms in the house, sacrificed himself and slept on the couch, right next to the kitchen.

Phil was the only one that worked in the Pandel household, so all of the brothers showed immense respect for him, reason why Techno was terrified at the thought of waking up Phil so late in the night.

But his sore throat and his dried mouth were screaming at him for water, so he had to put his fears aside.

A bolt of lightning struck his mind as he remembered that a week ago he had bought a water bottle for Tommy, ( because he "didn't want to get up and do it himself") the damn kid was being very annoying so Techno did it ... but instantly took revenge and kept the bottle for himself and threw it in his backpack.

He picked it up from underneath the desk and searched blindly with his hand the form of the water bottle.

He did find the bottle, but not the water, it was empty.

Techno silently complained and realized that there was no escape, he had to go to the kitchen.

The last two times he went in the kitchen at this hour without a light, he spilt water everywhere, waking up Phil and even Wilbur once, so to avoid that, he took his phone to use it as a light, only to realize it was on seven per cent.

Are you kidding me?  
He sighed and got up from his chair, slowly opening the door to avoid making any sounds.

It was now three am and the last thing he was expecting was to see a feeble light coming from the kitchen counter.

Avoiding the furniture and walls by shining them with the phone's flashlight, he arrived to the kitchen in complete silence, only to almost drop his phone in shock.

"What the-" he whispered under his breath, looking at the open laptop on the counter and Phil, passed out behind it. He took a glass from the cabinet without breaking eyesight with his older brother sleeping figure.

He poured water into the glass and brainstormed on what the hell was he supposed to do.

Did he have to leave him like that? Did he have to forget he saw this? Did he have to wake him up? He was going to have severe back pain the next day if he slept all night like that. But Techno was too weak to pick him up and carry him to the couch... but he couldn't leave him like that, not after all the times Phil had woken up in the middle of the night to comfort him or just stop him from studying and forcing him to go to bed.

As he finished drinking, he took off his glasses and placed them on the counter, it was mostly dark so he wasn't going to need them, plus, for what he was going to do next, seeing blurry shapes was just enough.

He went to the couch and took a pillow and a blanket. He made sure to save whatever Phil was doing before closing his pc and placing it undercharge.

Then, he slowly and carefully wrapped Phil's cold body in the blanket, making sure there was no way the cold air of the house could reach him.

Placing the pillow under his head was the difficult part, Techno was legitimately sweating when Phil shifted position, he was afraid he had woke him up, but he was glad that, when the second time he shifted, he changed the pillow's position himself, making Techno's job easier.

He admired his work of precision as the light from his phone turned off, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

He gave Phil a kiss on the head followed by a " 'night bro", before disappearing into the corridor, and then his room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phil woke up as his alarm set off, but as soon as he tried to reach the phone to turn it off, he realized he wasn't on the couch, and the blanket around him was trapping him completely.

It took him a while to remember that he was working on a few files before going to sleep... But he definitely didn't remember grabbing a pillow and a blanket.

As he finally freed himself, he turned off the alarm and stretched his aching body, hoping that the bags under his eyes weren't going to be as noticeable.

As he was about to leave for the bathroom, he noticed an empty glass out of the sink and Techno’s glasses on the counter.

Then everything clicked, and Phil couldn’t help but smile.


	4. Late night sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction was written before me and my lovely editor Jay were working together... so please bear with the incredible amount of grammatical errors... English is not my first language :D  
> (Btw this was the very first Fd!au fanfiction I EVER wrote)  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Techno’s lack of sleep causes him nightmare...but someone notices.
> 
> Warnings!: swearing, a bit of angst, mention of blood, fluff.

It had been a long day for Techno at School, the few surprise interrogations were not difficult, but definitely stressful, not counting the quite important math tests and the mountain of homework he had to hand in.

Of course, that day he had a very important rehearsal with the school band too, making him super stressed since the class before ended late and had to bolt to the other side of the school, but had to go back, forgetting his violin in his locker, making it to class barely in time.

The cherry on top? Last night he barely slept due to the enormous amount of homework for the next day, making him go through the entire day with two hours of sleep and too much caffeine for his own good.

He was used to pulling all-nighters to study, but today was really, really tiring. So as he arrived home, he bolted for his room and passed out on his bed, which it didn't bother his brothers at all since they were used to Techno weird behaviour, but as dinner time arrived, he was nowhere to be seen.

And THAT caught everyone's attention.

Techno never skipped meals, he was one hungry boi, so him not showing up, made in Wilbur's mind, pop up a few questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Did you tell Techno dinner is ready?" Wilbur was finishing heating up the dinner Phil had mindfully left for the three younger brothers to heat up, since yes, Wilbur could cook, but Phil's food was definitely better.

"Mh-hm, he said that he was busy and he'd stop by later" Tommy was already sitting at the kitchen counter, scrolling through his phone with only one earbud in.

His worries were put aside by Tommy's word's momentarily but came back throughout the dinner since Techno was nowhere to be seen.

"You know how Techno is" Tommy replied to Wilbur's concern "He's either studying or playing Minecraft, nothing to worry about" yet Wilbur felt like something was going on.

Indeed it was.

Wilbur knocked on his door, no reply, he knocked again, calling his name, nothing. Ok, this wasn't working.

Sometimes he would swing the door open, entering Techno and Tommy's room without knocking just to annoy them, but this time, he carefully opened the door, stunned and at what he saw next:

Techno was laying diagonally onto the bed, his hood covering his sleeping face and the concerningly deep bags under his eyes, his feet were dangling off the bed since his shoes were still on and his backpack was clearly thrown on the floor without a care.

Wilbur quietly awed at the sight of his younger brother in this, very cute situation. He knew Techno had a bad sleeping schedule, everyone did, so he decided to leave him be, not before taking his shoes off and placing a pillow under his head and a blanket on his body of course.

As he carefully closed the door, as on cue, the front door opened.

"Welcome back Phil!” Tommy greeted the elder brother as he entered the living room, followed by Wilbur's "Welcome back Phil, are you hungry?" witch the answer was predictable.

Wilbur opted to not say anything about Techno to Phil since it would only get him worried.

~~~~~~~~~

Techno almost screamed as he woke up from a nightmare.

He was drenched in sweat and his breathing was uneven, frantic as his eyes darted around the room, searching for any type of danger.

As his breathing became stable, he cupped his head in his hands. It was always the same nightmare.

The room felt small, oppressing, he needed air, now.

He blindly searched for his glasses and shoes as he left his room, bumping into a few objects such as chairs and cabins along the way to the front door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The stairs were the last thing his tired body needed to deal with but he. needed. fresh. air. now.

So he pulled his weight until the last step and the reward came instantly:

The night sky was beautiful, the deep dark blue with the sprinkles of white dots was such a breathtaking sight, the city's skyline was barely recognizable apart from a couple of lights here and there.

Techno took a few deep breaths of that cold humid night air, letting it refresh his lungs and clear his mind.

The big cold metal boxes of the air ventilation served as the perfect spot to sit on, but he opted to lay instead to look at the sky.

The few memories of her mother played on the back of his head, he could hear her sweet voice naming the constellations and stars, and as he heard her name one, he could look at the corresponding star, amazed by the beauty of the universe.

"Techno? What are you doing here" Techno's head snapped in the direction of the sleepy voice, who was with no doubt, Phil's one.

"I couldn't sleep" he lied, "What are you doing here?"

Phil sat next to him, placing his hands behind him for support. "I heard you bump into shit" Techno cringed, he didn't realize he had made that much of a noise "plus, you weren't very delicate with the front door, good thing the others are heavy sleepers" Phil added,"I'm sure that if an alarm would go off, Tommy and Wilbur wouldn't even notice"

The two chuckled and silence followed.

"So... a nightmare huh..."Phil casually teased. Techno's eyes widened, he pulled himself up and looked at his brother shocked. "How do you-"

"Happens to me too," Phil instantly admitted, "I am no stranger to nightmares, I can recognize when someone is bothered by one" Techno shifted in a more comfortable sitting position and took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes.

"I've had the same nightmare for the past couple of days..." he trailed off, gaining Phil's full attention "...it always ends up the same way... yet it's still... so scary" he admitted, slowly bringing his legs toward his chest to hug them.

"Want to tell me what they are about? Talking about it usually helps" Techno couldn't look at Phil, only the thought of looking at his brother made him worry about that horrible sight coming back.

He took a deep breath and started explaining: "It always starts with the four of us being surrounded by... people with gas masks and batons... they yell at us to surrender and if we don't they would..." he gulped, sure that Phil understood without the need of saying the word.

"None of us wants to surrender tho so we try to defend ourselves but... the nightmare always ends with one of you the ground covered in-" Blood, the word gets stuck in his throat as the image of his beloved brothers covered in bruises, injuries flow in his mind.

Silence falls between the two, letting the words sink in, after a while, Phil speaks up. "But that is not real, it's only in your head" he places a hand on Techno's back, making him flinch at the unexpected contact. "Plus, you know that if Tommy would get in a situation like that, he would start kicking everyone's butt while screaming "I'VE GOT THE POWER OF GOD AND ANIME ON MY SIDE!!!"

The atmosphere grew lighter as both of them laughed at the thought of the younger brother screaming such a thing, since they both knew it would definitely happen.

"C'mon, come here" Phil opened his arms, allowing Techno to scoot over and sink into his brothers' hug. Calming his racing mind down.

"You need more sleep Techno, and you need time for yourself, I was in your situation as well when I first started working, take a day off from school tomorrow, sleep all day if you need to, if not go out for a walk or just relax in the house. But please take better care of yourself ok?" Techno nodded “Let's not get to this point ever again, let's stop before we hit rock bottom." Techno was still sceptical about missing a day. He only missed two days of school because of sickness, he wasn't even sick... but he knew that Phil was going to force him to stay at home if he wouldn't spontaneously do it.

"C'mon, it's almost three am, let's go get some sleep, we both deserve it" As if on cue, Techno yawned, making Phil smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That's not fair! I want a day off too!" Tommy was complaining early in the morning after Phil told the rest of the brothers about Techno's day free day. Of course, he was still sound asleep, reason why Phil had to stop Wilbur from bursting into his room and calling him a "sleepyhead" while opening the blinds.

"Tommy, you have seen how tired he was these last few days, he needs a break. You, on the contrary, have tons of energy, since I'm sure that wining all day takes a fair bit of energy"

"Ohhhhh!!! Get rekt" Wilbur laughed at the sick burn Phil just casually threw Tommy's way, leaving him without words.

"C'mon guys, go or you'll be late" "You too Phil, your shift starts in half an hour" Wilbur pointed out, making the older brother accelerate his actions and leave with them.

As the front door closed and the voices of the three brothers got farther away, silence fell into the house, leaving Techno to a well-deserved rest.


	5. With brothers by my side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minetra was rambling about how the boys would handle being stressed and under pressure, and this fanfiction focuses mainly on Wilbur, since she gave me an amazing prompt without realizing it 
> 
> Enjoy~

“Ok class!” The English teacher grabbed everyone’s attention by clapping. The sound echoing in the large, mostly empty, room.  
“Today we will be reading the speeches you have written for this weekend festival, as you may already know, every class will give a speech, and today, hopefully with no hard feelings, we will decide whose speech is going to be presented, and who will read it”

Will was too tired to listen and to care, he had forgotten that this “speech-thing” was due today, (because the teacher gave them an entire week to write it, but Wilbur remembered it only the day before) so he had to pull a classic all-nighter to get it done in time, but everyone had to write one, so a three am sleep-deprived text was good enough to show he had done it, get a decent vote, and move on.

One by one, everyone read their speeches, the difference by an actual speech and a last-minute one was abyssal, Wilbur was half-listening, half-struggling to not fall asleep and half-thinking about accords to play on the guitar after school ended.  
“Mr.Pandel?” Wilbur abruptly straightened his back, almost knocking his pencil case off the desk “Since you look bored of your classmate’s speeches, why don’t you illuminate us with your speech?”  
Oh you bitch  
Without adding anything else, he stood up, took a deep breath and started reading his text, a mess that was not even written properly, it was scribbled SO badly he struggled to read it, and between illegible hieroglyphs and grammatical errors, it would have made any English teacher scream out of terror.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
His speech ended up being not terrible, but if he would have put any effort into it, no doubt his speech would have been chosen in a heartbeat.  
It did help that his voice was secure and very convincing, so in the worst case scenario, he would have gotten off with an average vote.

After everyone read their texts, it was time to choose who’s one was going on a stage.

The vote was fought between the British boy whose family was royal and all that bullshit and a girl who often skipped classes, so no one remembered her name...the girl ended up winning the vote and the boy almost flipped her off in front of the teacher, it would have been hilarious, but it didn't happen.

“Now that that’s settled…” The teacher cleared her throat, cleaning the blackboard to vote for the second decision: who was going to read the speech? 

Student after student, the votes for Wilbur skyrocketed, to the point where no one was even close to the points he had: he was going to hold the speech as his class representative at the school’s open festival.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As he was closing the front door, he shouted “I’m home!”, waiting for a reply that would never arrive.  
The house was empty, which made Wilbur a little sad since he had just shouted a greeting to empty walls.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket into his hand while opening the cupboards, grabbing Tommy’s cereals and… Oh yeah… That…

He had forgotten that his mug was in the sink, since no one had washed up the dishes that morning… Meaning that there were also no spoons left… Goddammit 

Placing the phone on the counter, he grabbed his mug and the spoon in it to wash them, was he going to wash the rest of the dishes? No, after all, he wasn't the one on sink duty that night, so he couldn't care less.

After cleaning his mug, pouring cereals and milk and sitting down on the couch to open Youtube, it hit him properly.

He was going to give a speech as his class representative at the school’s open festival… Open… 

Wait- shit, OPEN?!

He almost spat out the milk as he thought of that.

His school’s open festival was actually pretty known in town, and it was sure to attract parents and grandparents of the students, plus, everyone that swung by since there was also a market of hand-made miscellaneous.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh, that’s amazing Will!”   
“Way to go bro!”   
“...Cool”

Were the reaction of the Pandel brothers, Phil was very proud and supportive, Tommy was straight up happy for him and Techno was… tired, very tired, three deadlines were coming up at once and he didn’t have time to work on them before because he had other things to study. But from the small tired smile he gave him, Wilbur understood that he was just as happy as the other two.

“I’m also working for our class's stand!” Tommy was radiating the energy and excitement Techno was missing while explaining his role at the festival. “We will be serving juice made from flowers! It was a science experiment and it turned out great! Me, Tubbo and Deo will make the lavender extract!” 

“If it’s made by you three, I’m not trying it, I don’t trust you” Will teased Tommy, who instantly took the bait and barked back, Phil just laughed at the small back and forth between them that went on for a good two minutes.

“And you Techno?” Phil asked the half-asleep teen, “Are you doing anything for the festival?” Techno took back his plate after giving it to Tommy for a refill, “Publicly? Nah, too much pressure, I’m helping the teachers count how many spots we need. I let the plebs do the hard work, I just tell them where to put their stuff and which stand is theirs” 

After dinner, everyone went to do their own things, and miraculously, everyone slept more than five hours that night, they all needed and deserved it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the days before the event, Wilbur studied by heart the speech, every now and then saying it out loud to be sure it sounded good.

As the festival got closer though, his stress and the pressure placed on him by teachers and students alike became more and more, heavier and heavier.

Until the day arrived, from when he woke up, he kept count of the hours and minutes that separated him from either a catastrophe, or a smooth speech.

He was scared of both of them equally.

Phil and Will were walking between the stands, Techno was laid off by the teachers a couple of minutes ago, so he caught up and joined them, Will couldn't help but notice the white shirt with the black and red diagonal line tie with golden hints that Techno was wearing, it looked very good on him, it made him look very fancy- 

“HEY BITCHES!!!” Tommy waved energetically, embarrassing Tubbo and Deo, “COME TRY OUT THIS SHIT!”   
“T-Tommy please don’t shout that…” Tubbo whispered.

Tommy’s class stand, judging by the que, was very popular, the flower’s extracts were attracting everyone, but Tommy just gave them access from behind the stand, the lavender extract ended up being very good.

“If you want I can do it at home too! I’m a- I’m an extract master now! Yeah!” Everyone laughed at Tommy’s confidence while enjoying the sweet hand-made drink.

~~~~~~~~

Will was scared, peeking from the black curtain, the sea of students and adults in front of the stage inside the gym building was infinite, Wilbur couldn't see the end.

He sat down and brought his knees to his chest, he was stressed, scared...how could he have been so confident until now? How did he manage to agree to this? Why- 

“Are you there Will?” Phil’s voice made him bounce on his feet, making his head spin by the rushed actions.

Putting up a fake smile, he greeted his brothers “H-hello Boys! heh…”   
“Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill!!! There are so many people out there! It’s the year before yours that’s giving the speech right now, aren’t you nervous?” Tommy was munching on the sour candy Techno had bought him to redeem himself from the time he stole his candy. Will was trying his hardest not to bite his lip or fiddle around with his shirt.

“I’m fine boys! Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing! eheh…”   
Phil was looking at Will confused, his head tilted to one side.  
“If you say so Will…” Techno was also skeptical about Will’s words… but he decided to believe his older brother, “Do your best out there, you know how to do it” His smile became a bit more sincere when listening to Techno's words.

The older one shook his head, “Don’t give me that bullshit Wilbur, c’mere” Phil grabbed the younger out of nowhere and embraced him as tightly as he could.

Wilbur was frozen by the shock, clenching his fists while trying not to cry. The younger two looked at him and then at each other, after nodding, they joined in on the hug.

After a minute of silence, Phil spoke up, “I know you’re nervous Wilbur, everyone would be” the warmth coming from his brothers was melting his stress away, their hugs making a wall around his body and head, he couldn't hear the outside noises anymore.  
“I believe in you Will, I’m sure that once you get on that stage, everything will go smoothly just as you planned. Show the world you are stronger than your emotions” As they freed Wilbur from the brotherly… no, family hug, he was focused up and confident. 

Techno placed a hand on his shoulder and mouthed “You got this” and followed the other two who were already out of Wilbur’s sight.

He took a deep breath as the voice on stage introduced him.

Here we go

He stepped on stage as cheers and claps filled the air, in the large crowd before him, he noticed his classmates and a couple of teachers, and of course, his brothers.

Phil was smiling with a thumbs up, Tommy was shouting “GO WILBUR GO!!!” while jumping up and down, Techno nodded and cracked a smile: 

With his brothers by his side, he was ready to take on the whole world.


	6. Techno loving day!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pandel brother’s threw a surprise party to celebrate Techno’s amazing grades... they weren’t expecting to uncover a burden that had been haunting Techno for a while.
> 
> \----
> 
> This was also a small thing I wrote at midnight for Techno’s appreciation/loving day, I just fixed some things and added a few details :)
> 
> Warnings: angst, angst with happy ending, fluff, high chance of crying while reading this.
> 
> ~~
> 
> Enjoy~

Techno was coming back home from Skeppy’s house, he had helped his friend with homework he was struggling with since Skeppy didn’t study much and this exam was pretty important, like, you could not pass the year important and Techno wasn’t risking losing his best friend. He refused to be in a year without Skeppy, they were inseparable friends, sometimes he was the only thing that kept Techno sane through rough days and anxiety attacks, apart from his brothers, he was the only one he opened up to and talked to without care, rambling about anything on his mind. Skeppy would always listen to him.

After all of that explaining, friendly roasting and hysterical laughing, all he wanted was to face plant into his bed and pass out until the next morning.

The stairs taking him to the apartment he shared with his brothers were twice as painful to climb today, his eyes were fluttering and threatening to close while looking at the steps.

He pulled his keys out of his backpack and opened the front door, immediately realizing that... Something was… wrong?

The apartment’s lights were turned off, which was weird since Wilbur and Tommy had gone straight home after school. He was also pretty sure Phil had sent in their chat that he was coming back early, but he was too busy helping Skeppy with the English work.

Too tired to dwell on it, he closed his eyes and reached out for the light’s switch, bracing himself for the blinding light that was about to appear.

He clicked the switch and-

”HAPPY LOVING TECHNO DAY!!!”

His brothers were all around the kitchen counter, a small chocolate cake placed on the fake marble surface.

”What the- What’s going on? it's not my birthday-” Wilbur grabbed him and pulled him closer to the counter, where Phil and Tommy were waiting. ”We know!” he pulled a stool and indicated it to Techno, who was frozen on the spot Will had left him in.

”You passed a lot of exams with top scores recently” Phil started talking, slapping away Tommy’s hand from the homemade fries, gaining a hiss from the younger blondie, “And you have been working extremely hard for them, so we decided to celebrate!” he smiled whole-heartedly at the younger brother, who was still in shock.

”G-guys...” Techno looked down, keeping in the tears that he felt slowly forming in his eyes.

”Come on Techno!” Tommy frustratedly whined, “Stop acting shocked and take a seat! I want to eat!!! Phil cooked his mind-blowing fries and ordered pizza from the good Italian place on the main street! We eating good tonight bois!!!” Tommy yelled, not caring if the neighbours were going to complain the next day.

”T-thank you guys...” his voice was half-trembling, making his, already focused on the food, brothers look at him. “Dude, Techno, you ok?” Phil was the first one to talk, his parental instinct kicking in.

“Y-yeah… It's just…” he grabbed his arms, squishing them to his chest. “I-I haven’t said anything to anyone but… It has been a rough period…” now all of his brothers were worried, the food slowly getting cold.

“ Lately, the math teacher changed and… They've started having high expectations of me… too high… pulling all-nighters every night has helped me meet his expectation but… that meant not sleeping enough and not having time to spend with my friends and… y-you…” At this point he was silently sobbing, eyes closed tightly, his body crumpled on itself.

The brothers were at a loss for words.

They had noticed Techno’s eye bags getting darker, it happened periodically near exams since he stayed up to study, but they usually got less apparent after they ended… not this time.

Phil got up and hugged Techno, slowly caressing Techno’s back, “You know…” He softly spoke, “We have always been proud of your grades Techno but… you aren't your grades, you don’t need to be top of the class for us to love you” Techno froze, “But the teacher-”

A fist slamming onto the counter made everyone jump, “WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT THE TEACHER!” Wilbur yelled, making everyone look at him in both shock and worry.

Wilbur was usually calm in every situation, handling everything with grace and logic, but hearing Techno mentally hurt by someone who was supposed to teach him, to help him… it downright pissed him off.

“Ignore that bastard! You don’t need the top grades, you need to be healthy and happy!” Techno wiped his tears with the back of his hand, Phil still by his side.

“I- I know you are the teacher’s favourite Technoblade but who fucking cares? Who fucking cares about meeting expectations?!” He got off his stool and grabbed Techno by his sides, “Look at me Technoblade” Wilbur had the habit of calling Techno by his full name when he was serious, so he looked up into his older brother’s eyes.

“You’ll always be our brother, no matter what happens, we will always love you” he hugged Techno tightly, Phil and Tommy joining in, making him feel special and loved.

The food had gotten cold by now, but Techno could wait for it to heat up again and enjoy a celebratory meal with his brothers: he didn’t need to pull an all-nighter tonight.


	7. Will you have dinner with us (1/?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno had to train for the duel between him and Dream, winning it not only would have finally made him the “Best Minecraft player” in the school, but it would have also helped the Pandel brothers a lot.  
> Yet, all the stress made Techno stop spending time with his brothers, it was inevitable that one of the three would try getting him out of his room.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~
> 
> Warinigs! angst, sad boi hours, will make you cry (you have been warned)

“H-hey Techno?” Tommy’s voice was as fragile as Techno had ever heard it.  
“I-I know you are… prepping for the duel but…” he got closer to the door, placing a hand on it. _“Will you have dinner with us?”_

He has been putting all of his time and attention on practising for the duel that the rich kid nicknamed “Mr.Beast“ had set them up for. The reward for the winner? a 100k and the title of the best Minecraft player of the school, for the loser? He didn’t intend to find out.

The stress he was going through was so high if you could see it, it would get out of the stratosphere. 

“I know it’s a question of “pride” and all… but… just this once… come sit with us at the table…”

If only it was that simple Tommy…   
He clenched his fists, not intending to give into his beloved younger brother’s voice.   
He was about to put on his headphones back when the voice from behind the door spoke again.

“I’m not giving up this time!... J-just so you know!” a soft thump made Techno flinch. His eyes immediately darting to the door, scared that it would open.

Technically, the door couldn’t possibly open. He picked up the habit of locking it when entering. Why? Well... Wilbur snuck into his room and almost gave him a heart attack, being that he was too focused on the tense fight he was going through to hear the door’s soft squeak. Because of that, he locks it out of fear of history repeating itself.

~~~

Tommy allowed his back to slide on the door, sitting down while bringing his knees to his chest, hugging them close.  
Normally, Wilbur would call him “weak” for sitting like a “rejected schoolgirl” (whatever he means by that) in front of Techno’s room, taking his hand and forcefully sweeping him up to his feet and giving him something to do.

Phil did the same.  
He would kneel in front of Tommy, whispering that Techno was just going through a rough period and he needed to do it alone, telling him that it was going to be similar to the potato war and that once it was over, everything would go back to normality.

Tommy was thankful for his brothers cheering him up but deep down, he knew they missed Techno equally.

But this time, they weren’t home with him. This time, he was going to get Techno out of there.

“So… Um…” Well.. he was determined, he just didn’t know what to say to get him to open the door.  
“Y’know… I could help you practice… I’m- I’m good at Minecraft!” throwing random words together and making it a sentence wasn’t going to work, especially on Techno.  
So he closed his eyes and started seriously thinking about a plan.

The silence just made Techno feel even worse.

Was he that bad of a brother?... No, he was doing this for them.  
He honestly didn’t care much about the “clout” or the fame… 

He just wanted to see Phil work less and care about himself more.  
He just wanted to see Wilbur less stressed and pursue music as his main career, not a side hobby.  
He just wanted to see Tommy look at the video games and toys without having the fear of asking if he could buy them.  
He just wanted to take them to Europe and have a nice vacation, like they used to do when their parents were still alive.  
He just wanted to see their brothers happier, was that too much to ask?

Getting up from his chair, he got in front of the door, imagining Tommy on the other side, was wanting to give Tommy a brighter future too much?

With his back pressed against the fake-wood of the door, he sat down, faintly hearing Tommy’s breath.

 _“I will win for you”_  
Tommy’s eyes widened, not expecting to hear Techno’s voice so close to the door. The words he said and the shaky tone cough him off guard too.

 _“And after I do…”_ A gentle hick made Tommy place a hand on the door, _“We will be together for however long you'd like Tommy…”_ another hick, but this time, it came from the living room’s side of the door, _“I will have dinner with all of you every night”_

The gentle sobs filling the Pandel’s household showed how much the brothers cared about each other, those long-held tears were finally given liberty, with no one but the walls hearing them.  



	8. Possibly (and practically) a great friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be part two of “Will you have dinner with us” (I recommend reading that before starting with this one, but if you don’t you’ll understand just fine), but it ended up being about Techno and Dream, not about the Pandel brothers, but I like how it turned out so I’m posting it anyway. :D 
> 
> Techno wins the duel and decides to split off the reward, a bus stop, and Techno’s earbuds will be the only testimonies of the great friendship between them.
> 
> (Also the amazing @/indigo-says on Tumblr made this art piece to go along with the fic! I recommend looking at this after reading :) https://indigo-says.tumblr.com/post/628056319549685760/i-made-art-finally-this-is-for )
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Warnings! A bit of crying, fluff, and wholesome moment.
> 
> Enjoy~

The IT room was specifically modified for the event, Minecraft was treated almost like a religion at school since both students and teachers played it on a daily basis. 

With that said, pursuing the IT teacher (that was also a huge Minecraft fan) into leaving them the room wasn’t too difficult, plus, it was after school and no classes were scheduled at that time, so using it for an hour and a half or so wasn’t going to cause any problems.

Everyone knew about the duel, it was such a big event... but the IT room was… kinda small for all the school to fit in. To solve the problem, “Mr.Beast”, the host of the event, decided to stream it so that the groups of friends could sit together and watch the long-awaited duel with their phones from everywhere inside and outside of the school. 

Cheering for Techno, was the Pandel brothers and his friends, Phil really wanted to come too but his job didn’t allow him to take the hours off. He apologized a thousand times to Techno but he was too stressed to care.

Cheering for Dream, was the Dream team and all of his fangirls. If Wilbur was the most popular and handsome guy of the school, Dream was right behind him. 

At each round, the cheers could be heard echoing through the halls, the match being very close until… Techno couldn’t lose. 

The relief that washed over him when he could either win or tie was  _ immense _ , Techno was really hoping for a tie: They could split the money and call it even, but Dream wanted a winner,  _ and hoo boy did he get a winner _ .

The second he won, he didn’t realize it, he was too stressed and focused on analyzing the errors he had committed in that exchange, Tommy and Wilbur running up to him and hugging him snapped him back to reality: He had just won.

“LET’S GO TECHNO!!! I KNEW YOU WOULD DO IT!!!” Tommy was bouncing all over the place. If happiness was a human, at that moment it would have totally been Tommy.

Wilbur had a huge smile plastered across his face, squeezing Techno’s shoulders. “Gg’s Techno! I’m so proud of you, you did amazingly even at 1.9! All of the training really paid off!” Techno was just smiling, the sadness that Phil wasn’t there tried to throw him down, but it was fine: Phil was working hard for  _ them _ , winning this duel was to pay him back for all that he did for him.

  
  


After everything calmed down and the adrenaline started to go away, Mr.Best and Dream stood up, Techno did the same.

“Congratulations Technoblade!” Holding a microphone he got closer to Techno, placing his hand on his shoulder “ You just won a hundred thousand-” 

“Fifty thousand dollars” he quickly corrected, everyone in the room was confused at the statement. “I don’t deserve all of that money, Dream worked just as hard as me for this duel, he deserves that money just as much as me” 

Between gasps and mumbles, both of the men standing next to Techno remained speechless. Dream’s eyes got imperceptibly lucid.

“Wha- Are you saying you will split the price with Dream even if you won?!” He nodded, Techno had never been more sure in his entire life. Dream was his friend and just as good at him at Minecraft, he deserved them too.

~~~~~~~

The other two brothers had already gone home, Techno decided to stay for a bit more, he wanted to thank the friends that helped him train and privately congratulate Dream, yet he couldn’t find him anywhere. 

_ “You’re looking for Dream?” George seemed confused at the question since it was coming from Techno, “I don’t know where he is… he said he was tired and he was going home, that’s all I know”. _

Since he couldn’t find him, he took his backpack and sat at the bus stop, taking out his earbuds and sighing loudly when finding them completely tangled.

“Want me to help?” A voice coming from behind him spoke seriously yet joyfully. Techno snapped his head around, expecting to be alone, instead, there was Dream, holding his black backpack, earbuds completely untangled, in his ears. 

“O-oh… uhh…” he scratched his head as Dream snatched the white cables out of his hand, “C’mon, I’ll do it”.

He sat down on the metallic bench, focused on his task.

They sat like that for a couple of seconds, one was too shy to say anything and the other was too focused to care.

Until Dream took an earbud out of his ear and gave it, without taking his eyes off his occupied hand, to Techno, who hesitantly took it.

A chill song was playing, filling the silence of the bus stop, the cars driving by became a comfortable background for the two teens, especially for one of them, who decided to speak up:

“The duel was fun…” he quietly started, Dream still too occupied to look up, “You did very well, I underestimated your PvP skills…” Still nothing from the blonde-haired boy, Techno sighed, “I thought I was going to win all of the 1.8 matches, I didn’t know you knew how to use the rod-”

His ramble was cut off by Dream, who out of nowhere hugged Techno, catching him off guard once more.

A shaky  _ “T-Thank you…” _ came from Dream, catching him even more off guard. “Are you...?”

“T-thank you Techno… I was confident I would win a-and... I was going to rub it in your face to spite you but… after I lost…” A silent sob and a small shake coming from Dream’s body made Techno return the hug, “I couldn’t believe it… I thought  _ you _ were going to remind me of my loss constantly… B-but you didn’t! I-instead… “ Dream closed his fists tightly, involuntarily grabbing a bit of Techno’s hoodie, he didn’t mind.

“Instead you congratulated me! A-and split the reward without a blink!” Techno smiled, “Of course I did, you’re my friend after all” Breaking the hug, Dream wiped away his tears with the sleeve of his iconic highlighter green hoodie, both of them laughed.

Dream’s bus arrived, making the slightly younger one stand up and stretch before giving Techno his earbuds back, meanwhile, Techno picked up Dream’s backpack from the ground and handed it to him. 

“See ya tomorrow Techno!” Dream waved before entering his bus, Techno smiled back. Not too long after, his bus arrived too.

The school had always thought they were enemies, rumours said that they couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as the other, but Techno and Dream were friends, and even if none of them ever spoke of that moment at the bus stop again, they always thought of it whenever they were together.

If someone could be potentially a great enemy, it also meant they could potentially be a greater friend.


	9. Gestures are louder than words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you want to have a better context before reading this, read this first:  
> https://the-only-gamer-gost.tumblr.com/post/628608280227381248/this-was-an-old-ramble-antarctic-bay-did-in-the
> 
> ~~~~~~~~
> 
> Tommy comes back home in a very bad mood, Wilbur and Phil are concerned but end up making the situation worse, but Techno knows how to make Tommy talk: ASL (American sign language)
> 
> Warnings! Bullying, repressed anger, yelling, angst, hoo boy angst, crying, angst with a good ending, fluff and brother bonding moment :)
> 
> (The cursive and bold words are meant to be when they speak in gestures)
> 
> Enjoy~

“Ah, welcome back Tommy!” The inviting smell coming from whatever Phil was cooking welcomed him in just like his brother, both of which reminded him of his oopsie: He arrived home late.

Well… Phil did end his shift early, but arriving home after him for all of the brothers meant “they stayed out too late” since he always arrived home deep into the night.

“T-thanks...” Tommy sighed, Wilbur was on the counter, too absorbed into his algebra problems to notice him. Techno was nowhere to be seen but he wasn’t surprised, his door was closed so…you could imagine where he was, hint: when he wasn’t home his room’s door was open.

Closing himself in his room, he allowed his back to slide down the door until he sat on the floor, bringing his knees to his chest and squeezing them tight.

He wasn’t sad, he wasn’t crying, he was simply angry, hoo boy he was angry.

Taking a deep breath, he got up and sat at his desk, grabbing a notebook out of his backpack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You go around with a plushie? Pff, what a child…” Tubbo reached out for his bee plushie “Give me Spins back!”, needlessly since another bully pushed him on the ground.

“Aw~ the doggy wants his toy?”

“Give. It. Back.” Tommy appeared behind the bullies, shoving one of them onto the ground.

“Oh my… the Ally of Justice, The Protector of the Weak!” one mocked him.

As a punch was about to hit the bully’s face, a teacher arrived and stopped both of them, blaming it more on Tommy than the real bully, sending them both home.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The music from his headphones brought him back to reality, scribbling down words for his English homework, god he was pissed.

How dare they bully Tubbo! And for his plushie Spins! Of course, he had already made a plan on how to get back at them, no one messes with his best friend without paying for it, yet he still couldn’t see that situation as a win for the bullies.

The teacher always saw him as the one at fault, he was the “Black Sheep” of the Pandel brothers, the disgrace of the fami-

A knock interrupted his train of thoughts, “Dinner is ready! Come wash your hands, you gremlin” came from behind the door, a distant “That’s kinda mean Will” accompanied it.

He sat at the table, one of the chairs was empty: Techno was missing, but what’s new? It was his habit to skip dinner, Tommy wondered if he would have skipped tonight’s one too.

“Techno! Food’s ready, come eat!” Phil half-shouted while serving the food, all of them stood quietly waiting for the response.

…

“Techno?” Phil took off the potholders and peeked into his room, a muffled “Kinda busy right now, I’ll come at the table in a minute” came his response.

Phil’s cuisine had always been better than restaurant’s in Tommy’s eyes, and the omelette with bacon and cheese he had prepared today was just like everything else he cooked: amazing.

Tommy once asked Phil where he had learned how to cook so well, his response was a simple “Mom and dad were both very good at cooking, you’d also be surprised how much you can learn from watching videos” kinda cliche, but fair enough.

“How was your day at school boys?” Phil asked after swallowing down a bite, Tommy gestured at Will to go first.

“All and all, my day went pretty well. Had a test but it was quite easy, Nikki and I also went to a bar and chatted ‘till it was time to go back, pretty chill day.” Wilbur nodded at his own thoughts and drank some water, then both of them looked at Tommy.

“What” He stared back, eyes flickering between the two brothers.

“So? How was your day?” Will encouraged him to talk, Tommy rolled his eyes. “Nothin’ special” he started, ”The history teacher scolded me for chewing a gum in class and…” after a deep breath and a couple of thoughts processed, “N-nothing else happened.” he decided to stay quiet. He couldn’t be bothered to explain the whole thing to them, especially since Phil could scold him for punching that dick-bag in the face, that would just put him in an even worse mood.

But of course, his brothers wouldn’t let that slide.

“Are you sure that’s all it happened? You don’t look like someone who had a “Nothing special” kinda day.” Will had always been curious, maybe too curious at times, Phil also nodded: They weren’t blind, they could see that Tommy wasn’t in a good mood.

“Oh come on Will, I was the one who lived my day, I’m telling you, nothing special happened!” Techno emerged from his room and grabbed a plate, no one really noticed him though. Tommy shoved a bite in his mouth to avoid saying more than he should.

“I know we are being kinda pushy Tommy but-” “Yes!!! You are being very pushy Phil!!!” At this point, he couldn’t hold it in, he wasn’t mad at them… but the rage he had suppressed before to avoid making a scene at school had to get out somehow.

“We are just worried about you Tommy! Show some appreciation!” Will stood up for Phil: the brothers didn’t like it when someone yelled at or didn’t treat their older brother well, many times Tommy had done what Wilbur was doing, but his mind wasn’t calm enough to think right now.

“Oh?! Worried?! For me?! If you would really be worried you would just LEAVE ME BE!!!” He turned around and slammed as hard as he could the door shut, the noise echoed through the Pandel house, then silence.

Tommy took his pillow and started punching it, letting the anger and tension out, after a couple of swings, he threw it to the other side of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the Pandel brothers ate in silence, each of them absorbed into their own thoughts about the same topic: Tommy.

“So…Who is gonna go talk to him?” Wilbur broke the silence. “It’s better if no one goes talk to him right now, you heard him, he wants to be left alone.” Will looked at Phil “But we can’t leave him in that state! We have to-!” the older one finished his sentence “Help him, I know, but talking to him now will only make things worse, so let’s wait until he comes out” He stood up and grabbed Tommy’s plate, Phil moved what he left into a small container. “And if someone should talk to him” He opened the fridge, “It should be Techno, he has more chances of talking to him without an immediate rejection” Wilbur stared at the food in his plate in defeat, Techno simply nodded and ate the last bite of omelette: He even might have an idea on how to approach him.

~~~~~~~~~

Tommy left his room as Techno entered his, to put up his plan he had to stay in the living room, so that’s what he was going to do.

He grabbed what he needed to study and sat at the very end of the counter, immediately focusing on the textbook in front of him.

After Tommy looked at Techno weird since he rarely studied in the living room, he opened the fridge and grabbed a glass, filled it with milk, and went back to the sofa where he had dropped off his switch, sitting down and plugging in the earphones, he started playing “Breath of the Wild”. Tubbo had already finished it and Tommy wanted to try it out, being too broke to buy it, Tubbo lent his out of pity.

“Techno can you help me with this?” Will approached the counter with his textbook in hand, the pen in the other hand was busy scratching his head “I keep getting the wrong result and I don’t know-”

“No” He replied without taking his eyes off of his textbook, “Awww come on! I need to do this for tomorrow!” Techno sighed and patted the seat next to his, closing his homework to make room for Wilbur’s.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost an hour had passed and Techno had both helped Wilbur, who was now doing other work next to him and had finished his own stuff, he stretched his arms and back gaining a smile from Phil who was also working on his old pc.

After pouring a glass of milk for the rest of the brothers, including himself, he drank it all down and flopped on the sofa right in front of Tommy, who looked up to see why the seat had moved and then went back to his game.

Techno sat in a more comfortable position and started to tap on Tommy’s leg with his foot to grab his attention.

At first, all he got was some annoyed sounds, then his legs were pushing him away, and finally, he got his attention.

“What?!” He barked, eyes fixed on his smirking face. For any other person, Techno simply started waving his hands around while mouthing words, but for Tommy that was way more, that was Sign language.

 ** _What are you doing?_** Tommy rolled his eyes and placed his Switch on his lap, ** _I don’t want to talk right now_** , Techno snickered, **_As if you have a choice_**. The younger one sighed.

At the start of the year, Tommy wasn’t doing so good with grades, his problem was that he couldn’t remember anything no matter how hard he tried. Yet Techno had noticed how he could remember fighting moves (taught to him by Deo) and other stuff pretty easily, his solution? Sign language.

The sentences were very short to gesture and way easier to remember, like that, Tommy’s grades went up in no time.

As a consequence, Techno and Tommy were the only one in the house that knew how to talk in ASl (American Sign Language), so of course, they used it to share secrets or just to annoy Wilbur since he couldn’t understand.

They also used it to talk in the cafeteria to either insult each other without getting scolded or to have a normal conversation. It was their own special way of communicating and bonding over stuff.

 ** _I know that Will and Phil bothered you about your mood, but you seriously need to let it out_** , his body got stiff as a self-defence mechanism, **_Unless you want to become a ticking time-bomb and explode near someone you care about... again._**

Tommy’s eyes widened at the flashback of him shouting at Deo for something he hadn’t done came back, he was so mad he insulted his dear friend heavily, it took him an entire week to make the guilt go away and another two weeks to muster up the courage he needed to talk to him again. Deo forgave him but… to this day, Tommy still hadn’t forgiven himself.

After a minute of zoning out, he started gesturing and mouthing again:

 ** _Two students started making fun of Tubbo and I intervened, I punched one of them but…_** Techno’s arms were crossed as he was reading what Tommy was saying, **_Let me guess_** Wilbur looked up from his textbook and saw Techno gesturing, he wanted to yell at them to use their voices so bad… but he had to endure it this time… for Tommy’s sake.

 ** _A teacher walked in just as you punched him, blamed it on you, and sent you both home?_** Tommy looked at the console in his lap and slowly nodded, Techno sighed and patted the empty space next to him, smiling at the blonde boy.

Tommy crawled to the spot and hugged Techno, who just embraced him tightly while caressing his back in comfort, and the bomb, slowly defused itself: Tommy started sobbing, letting his emotions out.

“I’ll help you avenge him tomorrow” Techno whispered just before grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around the both of them, “We’ll make them pay, I promise Tommy” Tommy nodded and got even closer to Techno.

A shaky “T-thank you…” was all that came out of Tommy’s mouth before more sobs took over.

Will, who saw the whole scene, shook Phil's arm lightly, pointing at the younger brothers.

He smiled at them and looked back at Wilbur, who leaned to whisper in his ear “Let them be” to then pat his shoulder.

Wilbur looked back at Techno and Tommy and smiled too. 


	10. What happens in the toy aisle, stays in the toy aisle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy Techno and Will are pretty chaotic without supervision, so when they go pick up Phil from his workplace, they make a fatal mistake: they enter the toy aisle.
> 
> Enjoy~

Phil sighed in relief after a rush of clients had gotten out of the store, the offices had just closed so it was pretty normal for a rush to be around this hour, yet this one ending only meant that in a half an hour, the students rush was going to begin.

This also meant that he had half an hour to refill the shelves, so many things to do, so little time.

“Evening everyone! Evening Phil!” The new employee’s shift started round about now, he greeted everyone and went in the back where he worked, Phil was able to reply with a wave and a smile. The new guy had it rough since he worked the night’s shift in the warehouse, but Phil sometimes brought him coffee or something to eat before leaving work: the guy was slightly older than Wilbur and Phil only felt empathy for the guy.

He stretched his very tired body and started to put the products on the shelves, sleeping three hours for two nights in a row wasn’t the best idea he ever had but convincing Techno to stop studying so late wasn’t an easy task, plus, insomnia is a bitch ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.

The store’s “peace” (for how peaceful a store can be that is) was abruptly interrupted by the shouting of “HEY BIG P!!!!” coming further down the aisle. Customers and employees alike stared in confusion at the young boy who had yelled and the other two teens with him. 

Phil turned to see his brothers wave at him with a grin on their faces, “Boys? Wha- what are you doing here?” He asked in disbelief, what were they doing here? 

“We came to see you Big P!” Tommy hugged his older brother out of nowhere, making them almost lose balance. The other two smiled as they watched the wholesome scene.

“Thank you for coming to see me boys but, the store is on the other side of the town from your school! There has to be another reason you came all the way here” Wilbur and Techno snickered, making Phil more suspicious

then he already was.

“Now I’m genuinely concerned, what are you little shit-heads up to?” Phil engaged his dad-mode, placing his hands on his hips and looking at the teens for explanations. Tommy and Techno smiled innocently while Wilbur answered. 

“We came here to pick you up after your shift ends! There was no point in going back home and then coming here so…” He looked around while putting his arms behind his back, Tommy nodded aggressively like he always did when Wilbur talked for the three of them, “We came here directly from school in my car, It just didn’t feel right to make you come back home on the bus. You work for all of us so this is the least we can do”

Phil stared at them in silence, that was so thoughtful of them.

Phil moved around town with the old trusted scooter their father gifted him on his sixteenth birthday, but as time passed, it only became more old and less trusty, so it was no surprise when two mornings ago the scooter didn’t start, the noises it emitted were more than worrying so he brought it to the mechanical near their house. He could afford the repair costs but he completely forgot that he had to use the bus to get to work, so he woke up “at the same time as usual” the next day… he didn’t calculate that the scooter was way faster than the public transport though, so he arrived twenty minutes late.

“That is very… kind of you guys, but my shift ends in an hour, what are you going to do until then?”

Techno shrugged, “Laugh at kids toys” saying it like it was the most normal and obvious thing in the world.

Phil couldn’t help himself from face-palming, smiling behind the hand that covered his face: he loved his brothers very much, but  _ god _ why were they so chaotic? 

“Fine then, go to the toy aisle, just… don’t get yelled at for making too much noise ok?” Their eyes started sparkling, they were waiting for this.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Phil, Wilbur and Tommy bolted out of view, Techno sighed and shook his head before walking with hands in his pockets after them.

Phil smiled and got back to work, moving the groceries from the cart to the shelves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So wait, you’re telling me that the teacher gave you a vote without checking your paper?” Wilbur was playing with his yo-yo while casually chatting with Techno, Tommy was bouncing a basketball around them.

“Yeah, I mean… it’s pretty normal, the teacher says that it’s always a “waste of time” to check my papers because she never finds any errors” The blonde boy was half-listening to his older brothers, they said they were going to the toy aisle to make fun of stuff, “Stil, the teacher shouldn’t do that! Correcting homework is part of her job!” Yet they were talking about boring stuff, who cares about school anyway?

“I am aware Wilbur, that’s why she doesn’t like me anymore, I said in front of the class that she gave me an A+ but I made two errors she didn’t correct, now both the class and the teacher think I’m an asshole” Techno sighed, he never really cared about what people thought of him, but it still kinda hurt.

Wilbur stopped playing with the yo-yo, looking at the ground while in thoughts.

“Have you reported this to the principal?” Techno shook his head.

As he was about to say something, a bunch of bouncy balls hit them.

“GWAHAHA! YOU JUST GOT PRRRRANKED BRO!” Tommy laughed hysterically at them, holding a small box full of them.

“You in this Techno?” Wilbur grabbed a couple of balls off the ground, “Count me in Will” Techno juggled a ball in his hand, ready for what was about to happen.

“Wait- guys- w-we can talk about this!” Tommy slowly started to back away from them, hoping for an agreement.

“One…” Tommy gulped, Techno adjusted his glasses.

“... Two… “ Tommy became a stuttering mess, Wilbur grinned as widely as he could.

**_“THREE!”_ ** They said in unison, bringing back their arm to launch the bouncy ball as hard as they could.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Proudly, Phil placed his hands on his hips as he admired the work he had just done: The whole aisle was know refilled and ordinated.

He chucked the empty carton boxes into the cart along with the cutter and pricer. Taking it in the warehouse where the new guy and another employee were drinking coffee, the night was long for them so this was the first of many.

As they noticed Phil walking in, they greeted him, “Yo Phil! Want some coffee?” The older Pandel brother shook his head and thanked them, “No thanks mate, I’m good” Taking one card box at the time, he cut them and folded them to throw them away while making small talk with the other two employees.

“Did you know that the manager got caught flirting with that young cashier the other day?” One of the workers said after taking a bite of their sandwich, “He’s an asshole who looks like a creep, I’m not surprised… “ The other one was playing crosswords, he replied as he scratched his head. “Vertical, four letters, a Japanese company who products televisions and owns a console? Dude, I don’t play those videogames how am I supposed to know?” 

“Sony” Phil replied while dropping off the cutter, the guy who asked the question stared at the journal. “Um… Oh Yeah! It fits! Thanks Phil” He scuffed it off as he closed the storage door, heading off to change out of his uniform. He wondered what mess the three brothers could have done while out of his sight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before he changed and waved goodbye to his co-workers, Phil had sent a text to Wilbur, asking him to meet up outside the store, when he arrived there, they were already waiting.

“Alright!” He stretched his arms “I’m so done doing shit today, who wants to order pizza?” The brothers agreed and cheered as they got into Will’s car, of course he was driving, so Phil sat in front and the other two in the back.

“Thank you for picking me up today” He looked at Wilbur.

“No worries big P!” Tommy emerged from the back seat, a soft “It’s the least we could have done” came directly from behind him, he smiled.

“So what did you end up doing while waiting for me?” The car became as silent as rock, Will’s eyes widened. 

From that day, the three brothers never entered Phil’s workplace again, also bouncy balls were now banned in the Pandel household. 

  
  



	11. Happy birthday Wilbur!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Wilbur's birthday today! Have this small fic dedicated to our beloved English YouTuber

Wilbur got out of his bed and put a sweater over his pyjamas and a beanie on his head. He got out of his room and gently closed the door behind him, what was the point of laying in bed awake?

It was currently eleven pm, in a few hours, it was going to be his birthday, it would have been a normal birthday if it wasn't that today in music class, a classmate was trying to learn guitar and the teacher went up behind him and helped him.

_ He saw himself and his father. _

The Pandel’s dad was a very busy man, but he would always find the time to sit down and listen to Wilbur playing the guitar.

The starry sky emitted enough light for him to see his guitar, he had played in darker situations.

As he started strumming some chords, the memories of his father sitting next to him and encouraging him poured in his mind, he started singing louder than his thoughts.

_ ”I hate to say this, but your sister was right!” _

_ ”Don’t trust English boys with far too much free time!” _

He started singing ”Your sister was right”, a song he used mostly to let energy out of his system since he could half yell the lyrics.

After he finished singing this song, he was always out of breath.

Exactly what Wilbur needed right now.

Letting go of all his thoughts, he stopped singing the energetic piece and opted to play something calmer instead.

_ ”My keyboard’s like my heart, it shines in rgb and it's full of  _ **_blood_ ** ”

_ ”I don’t know what is wrong with me, I'm scared pissed off and lonely” _

**_”Warning”_ **

As Wilbur kept singing and playing, he didn't realize someone else was singing along.

  
  


_ ”Give me a reason not to be on my knees~... The-” _

**_”The internet has ruined me!”_ **

Wilbur stopped playing as other voices took over.

”Hey! Wh-why did you stop?”

He turned around to find his brothers, all of them with bags under their eyes but a smile brighter than the stars above them.

Before Will could say anything they came closer, Tommy sitting next to him, Techno sitting on his other side and Phil stood up behind him, all of them hugged him.

Tears formed in his eyes, laughing as his brothers lavished him with love, attention , and care.

Softly as a whistle of wind, they all whispered:

**_”Happy birthday Wilbur”_ **

  
  



	12. A tattoo for a lost bet (1/3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Skeppy bet on stupid things, and sometimes their bets can have very severe consequences if lost.
> 
> ~~
> 
> Tw! Betting, swearing
> 
> Enjoy~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With a grand request, this fanfiction will become a three-parter, go in my works to find the book where this story will continue. I will leave this chapter here but the rest won't be here.

Childhood friends usually have that one thing they used to do or say when they were young, maybe even a habit they caught together and never got rid of. Techno and Skeppy used to bet on the stupidest things when they were young… Well, they still do bet on the stupidest things, but there is a difference from when they were young: they have some money now.

It was very normal for them to bet a couple of dollars on the stupidest things.

“My bus is going to arrive earlier than yours” Bet

“I’ll finish my homework before you” Bet

“I’m betting that you can’t finish your burger before I do” You’re on.

And these are just some examples, they really betted on everything, and Techno won half of them.

That’s why Skeppy stopped betting too much money when playing with him, literally half of Techno’s income was his won bets against him.

That’s why Techno barely stepped down from a bet coming from Skeppy, he was so confident that he also would bet the stupidest things to gain some dollars.

They didn’t bet only money though, they bet other things like objects or small things they had to do if they lost.

And honestly, Techno was so confident he could win a 1v1 in Minecraft against Skeppy, even though if he lost, he had to get a tattoo. 

He hadn’t played in a few days due to all-nighters for last-minute tests, but Skeppy was worse than him anyway, it would have been fine… Right?

  
  


“You should get something edgy... like a skull!” 

_“I hate you”_

Skeppy laughed as they stood in the waiting room of a tattoo place in town, Techno had lost the bet, and now, he had to get a tattoo. 

“Look, you’re lucky I didn’t _specify_ what tattoo you had to get” Techno took off his glasses and allowed his head to fall into his hands, “I know, if it was for _you_ I’d have a _dick_ tattooed on my forehead” Skeppy laughed again, Techno just exhaled in exasperation, out of all of the times he had to lose a bet, why this one?

The customer before them got up and entered what they guessed was the studio, Techno tensed up a little bit

“Do you already have an idea of what you’re getting? I’m pretty good at suggestions” He announced proudly placing his hands on his hips, gaining a death stare from Techno. “You are the last person I’d ask for a suggestion” Skeppy whispered “Ouch” before both of them smiled.

“To answer your question, yes, I do have something in mind” 

I mean… after passing an entire night up, looking at tattoo ideas, he had an idea of what he could get, he just couldn’t find a photo or a drawing of what he wanted. 

“By the way… “ Skeppy slipped his phone out of his hoodie, “... did you tell Phil about this?” 

_He froze_

_Skeppy noticed_

“Don’t tell me… “ The boy with the light blue hoodie didn’t finish the question, scared of the answer.

Techno sighed… 

_and nodded._

“OH MY GOD TECHNO!!!” Skeppy bounced out of his seat, “ I THOUGHT YOU TOLD PHIL ABOUT THIS!!!” Techno gestured at him to be quiet, Skeppy sat back down.

“Phil would have _neve_ r agreed to this! I had to do this without telling anyone” The customer and the Tattooist came out of the studio, “Plus, I’m doing this somewhere I can hide it pretty easily” he reassured, but mostly himself. 

“Dude, you sound like you’re getting it on your butt” Techno pushed him lightly in response.

As the customer left, the tattoo artist came up to them and asked who of the two were here to get tattooed, Techno took a deep breath and got up. 

_No turning back now_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I applied a layer of petroleum jelly and put on a bandage, you’ll have to keep it for about twenty-four hours” Techno carefully listened to the tattooist after stepping out of the studio, “To avoid getting an infection, wash it with an antimicrobial soap and water, you can find it in any store, I recommend patting it dry instead of scratching it, put vaseline on it and keep it moisturized,” Skeppy was comfortably sitting on the couch, half-listening to what they were saying.

“For how long do I have to do this? Techno gently placed a hand on his left shoulder, “It’s a pretty big tattoo so...about four weeks” Skeppy’s eyes widened, p-pretty big? Four weeks? What in the hell did Techno get?

“Remember to do the whole process two times a day and don’t expose it to the sun, if you ever have any questions or insecurities, come see me kid, no worries.” Techno politely thanked him and gestured at Skeppy to follow him out, oh boy did Skeppy have questions for him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“THERE WAS NO NEED TO GET IT THAT BIG!!!” Skeppy freaked out when Techno had told him the tattoo went from his left shoulder all the way to his elbow, he could have just gotten a letter or a dot and it would have been fine for him. 

“To be honest, I was thinking of getting it smaller, but then the tattooer showed me a design he drew and… “ Rubbing the back of his head, he explained to Skeppy what happened in the studio while he was deciding what to get tattooed. Skeppy calmed down hearing his friend happy about the choice he had made, hoping that he wasn’t going to regret it later.

“By the way… can I see it? Now you’ve made me curious!” Techno shook his head and Skeppy frowned in disappointment. 

“I can’t show it right now, the bandages are on it and I can’t take them off for a day, maybe tomorrow at school” Techno smiled subtly, he will never admit this but he couldn’t wait to show Skeppy his tattoo.

  
  


Making their way to the bus stop, they shared earbuds to listen to some music, right now they were using Techno’s phone meaning that Monstercat was playing it their ears, specifically, “Call me” by Subtact.

But the music was just a background to fill in an eventual moment of silence, they had been talking since they left the coffee shop and the tattoo argument never left the conversation.

“Would you ever get a tattoo Skeppy?” Techno asked curiously, walking side by side with his best friend, his hands were casually placed in his hoodie’s pockets.

The brown-haired boy had his hands behind his head in a very anime-like pose, “Maybe, I think it would be way smaller than yours though” the sky over the city was grey, the sun’s light was barely able to pass through the immense stretch of clouds, summer was ending and school had already started.

The two young boys arrived at the bus stop and kept chatting until their ride home arrived, Techno’s bus arrived first so they waved their goodbye’s and went their own way.

While looking outside of the window, he started thinking about how to avoid any possible questions about the bandages in the bathroom that his brothers could find. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He opened the front door to find two brothers playing cards on the coffee table, both of them too absorbed in the game to greet him.

“What are you guys doing?” Techno passed next to them to go leave his bag into his room, “Waiting for you to get home, dinner is ready and Phil won’t be coming home until later” Wilbur spoke up, eyes fixed on his cards, “Don’t disappear Technoblade, I just need to heat the food and we can eat” Techno nodded and entered his room, opening his backpack to grab out the bandages and soap he bought before parting ways with Skeppy, he knew there was vaseline somewhere in the bathroom and Will had a moisturizing cream he never admits he has and uses, there was no point in buying them since they were at home already, he could just borrow them.

After taking his shoes off and slipping in his slippers, he exited his room to sit at the counter to eat with Wilbur and Tommy, placing his glasses by his plate and rubbing his tired eyes before taking his first bite.

There were about two or three minutes of silence before anyone started talking.

“Tubbo said that he, Nikki and Eret are planning on a movie night next Saturday, they invited us” Tommy broke the silence, the Berry siblings loved doing movie nights, they had a small projector which served as a monitor and a big ass couch where them plus the Pandel could all fit if squished a bit, reason why they usually invited them.

“I already said I’m going, you guys coming too?” He looked at his older brothers, but his gaze fixed on Techno’s left shoulder… was it just an impression or…? 

“I don’t have anything to do so, yeah I’m down” Wilbur replied after taking a sip of water, “You Techno?” 

Now both of their gazes were on the pink-haired brother, who was currently munching on a vegetable. “Yeah sure,” he shrugged it off, “Have you asked Phil yet?” 

Tommy’s eyes were still fixed on Techno’s left shoulder, “No… I was thinking of…asking him when he came- Techno wh-why is your left shoulder bigger than usual?” 

He almost choked on his salad.

“What are you- Oh… yeah, you’re right” Wilbur also looked at his shoulder, welp, fuck.

“I… uh…” Techno almost stuttered, he had forgotten how vigil and attentive to details Tommy could be… what could he tell them… 

Saying that he got in a fight was the worst idea ever, knowing his brothers they would have asked him the name, grade and address of who did this to him, so that idea was out of the question.

Eh, just deny it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” he took another fork of his salad, trying to play it cool, “But I swear it looks-” 

“Maybe it’s this hoodie” he quickly interrupted him, he had to get the attention somewhere else, _fast._

“This hoodie is pretty fluffy and I didn’t use it for the entirety of summer so… “ He trailed off, leaving Tommy very suspicious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day at school wasn’t too different from others, the only “unnatural” thing he had to do was go get a violin and carry it from one side of high school to the other, thank god he usually carried stuff mostly on his right shoulder. 

Speaking of carrying, he had to carry his backpack on only his right shoulder, a thing he despised and never did, but placing any type of weight on the new freshly-made tattoo stung a little bit, hopefully in a couple of days he could go back to using both shoulders normally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bandages… vaseline… the soap is already in the bathroom… “ It had passed twenty-four hours from when he got the tattoo, it was time for him to change the bandage, and to do so, he wanted to be a hundred per cent sure he had everything he needed before going to the bathroom.

He grabbed all of the necessary things and peaked into the living room, Wilbur was in his room and Tommy wasn’t home yet so he took a deep breath and silently DASHED to the bathroom.

First thing first. 

Lock. The. Door.

He wasn’t about to get walked in on by one of his brothers, so he locked the door and took another deep breath, he was now partially safe.

Underneath his hoodie, he had changed after arriving home into his only tank top, aka Wilbur got gifted one but he didn’t like it, so much that when doing laundry he had placed it in the stack of Techno’s clothes, so now it was his.

He didn’t want to do the whole operation shirtless so I guess the tank top was pretty convenient. 

Stripping out of his hoodie, he looked at the bandages wrapped around his arm and the deep bags under his eyes: if someone else looked at him, they would think he was part of a gang or something.

Carefully peeling off the bandages, he realized that the skin around the tattoo was pretty red, the bits that were getting exposed to the air felt hot, it was going to be a big problem if he had gotten an infection.

As the last part came off, Techno looked once again in the mirror, the beautiful floral tattoo that he had seen drawn on paper by the tattooist look way better on skin, **_his_ ** skin.

Techno was afraid of regretting his decision, getting a tattoo this big from a day to another was careless of him, but god it looked pretty, he loved it.

Realizing that he was smiling at his own reflection, he shook it off and got back into a more concentrated state.

As the tattooist said, with a glass, he poured over the black ink cold water, his shoulders loosened up at the welcome sensation of chill washing over him.

He took the soap he bought and started making slow and soft circular motions, pressing as little as he could-

The sound of the handle trying to open the door made him jump, _oh no no no, please…_

“What do you want?” he recomposed himself and spoke with his usual unbothered voice, _“Did you lock the bathroom Techno?! Why the fuck would you do that?!”_ , a high voice came from the other side of the door, Tommy must have arrived home from practice and he usually takes a shower right after entering the apartment so…

“It’s called privacy Tommy, plus I just got out of the shower, and no, I’m not rushing, I’m taking my sweet time” A loud groan could be heard right before footsteps walking away, Techno sighed, close one.

He continued taking care of his tattoo with extreme caution, washing away the soap, applying the vaseline, and wrapping it back up again. He threw everything in his drawer ( who usually only had the gel he occasionally used and his trusted comb), put on the hoodie again and shouted at Tommy that the bathroom was free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that, he went straight back into his room to work on the unusually low number of homework, unfortunately, it was French, so it didn’t matter how much stuff he had to do, it was going to take a long time either way.

He finished around the time that Phil got home, the older brother had the habit of greeting every brother one by one, so when a “Hello Technomate~” arrived from the slightly open door, Techno smiled and replied with the least dead-inside voice he could make: “Welcome back home Phil” 

He was about to close his textbook as Phil’s voice in the distance asked him a question he wasn’t expecting.

“Hey Techno… Why do you have bandages in your drawer?” 

Time stopped and Techno froze, a shiver shot up his spine. Why did Phil open his bathroom drawer?

“Uh… Well… Tommy sometimes comes home with cuts and bruises so I bought bandages in case he ever needs them” It wasn’t a lie, Techno would always patch up Tommy if he got hurt when his protect-the-weak vigilante moves failed him and he got some bruises, his voice was a little shaky but he was so far away from Phil that he probably didn’t notice.

“Huh… That’s… awfully empathic of you… “ 

Techno stood completely still for a couple more seconds waiting for him to find the antimicrobial soap and the vaseline, but it never happened.

He exhaled after taking off his glasses, throwing himself on the bed, turning to face the ceiling.

He didn’t regret getting this tattoo, but for how long could he keep it hidden from his brothers? For how long would he be able to _lie_ to his brother? 

Only time could tell.

  
  



	13. Girls and pigs night out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niki has the house to herself this weekend, but her plans get cancelled last minute, so one of the Pandel brothers decides to become the back-up plan
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Warning!: Swearing
> 
> Enjoy~

“What colour do you-“ “Pink” 

Niki was asking Techno the colour he wanted her to paint his nails, but his reply cut her off before she could finish the sentence. She stared at him, blinking a few times. 

“That was… quick” she grabbed the pink nail polish, “Ouu~ What if we do pink and black?” she excitedly showed him the two glass bottles next to each other, “Sure” he softly smiled at how happy the girl was.

Niki had the house all to herself this weekend, Eret had left for an update course regarding his job and Tubbo was sleeping over at the Pandel household, leaving her alone.

She had tried to invite someone over, but everyone she asked already had plans, making Niki quite sad.

What made her extremely sad was when Minx agreed to a girls' sleepover but had to cancel it last minute. Techno was with her when she received the text and the poor girl felt avoided.

”I know they don't mean it Techno” she sobbed, holding the tears in, ”But it looks like everyone is avoiding me” dropping the phone on the sofa, she held her head between her hands, her body shaking with each sob.

”There there…” he caressed her back. Techno wasn't one to comfort people, he was usually the one to make them cry, so being on the comforter side wasn't familiar to him.

But be understood the situation Niki was in; Wilbur and the musical friend group weren't available, she had asked classmates only to be rejected with a ”We have an exam to study for, we aren't all like you who gets good votes because we are pretty and sweet talk the professors” which was first of all very rude, and second of all, not true. Techno knew how much Niki studied, they sometimes even studied together. And for a third, she invited Minx, she agreed and then sent her a text saying she couldn't make it, even Techno would feel avoided at this point.

”I know it's not like that but-!” she started crying, Techno could only feel bad for his friend.

But then, a thought arrived.

”What if you still have the sleepover, but instead of being girls only, it's for girls  _ and _ pigs?” she looked up at him in disbelief, a tear rolled down her face, ”Y-you would do it?” he shrugged, ”It's not like I had anything better to do at home anyway” she smiled and hugged him, catching him off guard, ”Thank you Technoblade” he smiled and hugged the girl back.

So that's how they got in this situation, listening to One Direction songs while Niki painted Techno’s nails, of course all topped by a glitter face mask and some good old gossip.

”Wait wait wait- so you're telling me she stole her friend's money  _ only  _ to gift it back to her, look nice, and hit on her boyfriend?!” Niki stifled a giggle as Techno repeated what she had just told him, ”Yep, Janet had a crush on Adam for a while now, and even if he is taken, with her best friend, she is still trying to hit on him” Techno adjusted the border of his face mask, ”What a bitch” Niki burst out laughing, she had never seen Techno gossip, and the funniest thing was that he knew a lot about his classmates, he just kept quiet about it since he had no one to gossip to.

”If I remember correctly, she also tried to hit on Will” he gave Niki his other hand, shaking the one with fresh polish on around to dry it faster, ”Let's be honest Techno, who hasn’t tried to hit on Will? Every girl in the school has fallen for his charm” they giggled at the fact that yes, that was true, but even if that was a thing, Wilbur was still single.

”Well not all of the girls, you didn't hit on Wilbur” Niki rolled her eyes, ”That’s… correct, but I did fall for his charms, just not in that way, I am his friend after all” Techno nodded, mumbling ”true true” to himself.

”And done! Oh my God Techno you look so good!” Niki closed the nail polishes and admired her work, ” You did an incredible job Niki, oh! oh! Can I paint yours?” Techno asked excitedly, already looking at the drawer with the polishes, ”If I did pink and black you  _ have _ to get pink and white” she giggled at the sight of Techno in Eret’s borrowed t-shirt, it was too large for him and it made him look like a blob, ”Are you suggesting we get matching nail polish?” she fake-gasped, ”Heck yeah I am” he smiled as he sat back down next to her with the small glass bottles, his nails weren't even fully dry yet here he was, painting Niki’s nails.

After the nails dried out and they took off the face masks, Techno proposed a “Midnight snack” aka strawberry vanilla and chocolate ice cream (of course eaten directly from the box with a big spoon) while bingeing various Netflix series.

After a couple of hours, Niki looked at the boy lying next to her and noticed how soft his pink hair looked, so she reached out to touch it and gasped, slightly scaring Techno, “Oh my god your hair is so soft for being dyed! How do you do it?!” He smirked, “Conditioner and hair mask?” He replied like it was the most normal thing in the world, she gasped again, “You use a hair mask?” She looked at him in shock, his smirk got wider “Once a week” 

They ended up talking about their hair care routine and what brands they used for dyed hairs shampoos, while the tv was just background noise, Niki started to gently make small braids in Techno’s hair, “I can’t believe I never noticed how soft and bright your hairs are! I need to try out your brand” Techno’s hair wasn’t that long, but long enough to make multiple braids, decorating his silk smooth hair. 

“If you want to try out various brands, do  _ not _ try the purple-bottle one, it slightly darkens the colour of your hair, especially if it’s a bright colour” Niki nodded making a mental note.

“I have tried a lot of brands before I found mine, but-” Techno’s phone started ringing, interrupting his sentence, Niki kept braiding his hair peacefully. 

It was a video call from Phil, Techno was resting his head on a cushion on Niki’s lap so he extended his arms in front of him and answered:

_ “HELLO TECHNOBLADE, Hi Technomate~”  _ The greet of his two brothers came in at once, the two distinct voices overlapped.

“Helloo~” He greeted back, Phil was sitting at the kitchen counter while Tommy was standing behind him.

“Where are you Techno? You didn’t tell us you were spending the night out” He apologised by moving the phone so Niki was in the shot behind him, “I’m staying at Niki’s tonight, I’m sorry I forgot to text you” Phil nodded and reassured him it was fine, meanwhile, Tommy noticed Niki who kept braiding Techno’s hair.

“Oh my- BWAHAHA!!!” he burst out laughing, “What are you laughing at Tommy?” Everyone got a bit confused, “Look at Techno’s hair!” to that, Phil awed, thinking it was very cute, Tommy laughed once more while Techno blushed. 

“Y-your just jealous I look better than you!” He did something he rarely did, stutter in embarrassment, but Tommy got angry at the roast and didn’t realize it.

To get back at him he asked one of his cringy questions:

“Hey, Technoblade! Wh-what are you doing at a girl’s house all alone?!” Techno grinned and brought his phone closer to his mouth so he could whisper the reply,  _ “Girls and pigs night out, bitch”  _

That phrase went into Wilbur’s quote book.

  
  



	14. Comfort Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo hangs out with the Pandel so much that he became the secret fifth brother, and Phil will not hesitate to treat him as such
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Warning: Swearing, mention of bullying, a bit of angst, fluff, Phil is a dad.
> 
> Enjoy~

The giggles of the two joyful boys coming from the staircase could be heard from the kitchen, Phil was humming songs of his teenage years while mixing some ingredients in a bowl, reading from his laptop (placed a safe amount away from any type of liquid or powder) the recipe of what he was making.

Phil loved cooking, he had always enjoyed preparing hand-made meals for his brothers, not only because it was cheaper, but because he genuinely liked it and was pretty good at it… at some meals, that is.

He never got into baking cakes, cookies, or any type of sweets, that’s why he was using a recipe and following it by the book, “Hm… pour small quantities in the tray, leaving spaces between each cookie…” the jingling of the keys and the door opening announced that the two friends had arrived through the front door, “Hello Phil!” “Hello, Philza Minecraft!” Phil smiled at Tubbo calling him his Minecraft nickname, “Hello boys, how was practise today?” they both left their backpacks by the couch, Tubbo was untying his shoes while Tommy ran straight for the bathroom, “Pretty good! Tommy surprised everyone today, he flexed on the class hard” Tommy peaked from the bathroom with a towel in his hands, “Pffff- No no I didn’t do anything fancy- you- you are just complimenting me Tubbo” he sarcastically scuffed it off, “What do you mean?!” Tubbo crossed the living room, passing in front of the kitchen and into the bathroom, turning the sink on, “You literally beat the ten-lap BEST TIME by ten seconds! How is that NOT a flex!?” Tommy laughed, “Oh really? I’m proud of you Tommy” he blushed lightly, “T-thank you Phil”.

After they both washed their hands and sat down at the kitchen counter where Phil was baking, Tubbo asked: “Can I stay the night here? Tommy and I have a project to do and it would be easier than meeting up somewhere else” Phil carefully took a spoon of the brown-ish mixture and placed it on the tray,” As long as Eret knows about it, you are free to stay whenever” Tubbo smiled, half-yelling a “Thank you Philza Minecraft!!!” 

Tommy turned the pc covered in a plastic film towards him, “What are you baking big P?” Tubbo leaned over Tommy’s shoulder to read the monitor too, “ I found this cookie recipe on a blog I follow and I thought they would be a good alternative to the cookies we usually buy” Tubbo’s eyes started shining, “OH! OH! CAN WE TRY THEM ONCE THEY ARE DONE?!”, smiling at the excitement of the boy, he nodded. “yes…” he quietly whispered.

“Wait- On a blog you follow? OH MY GOD- Do you follow cooking blogs?!” Phil blinked a couple of times, “Yes?”    
Tommy burst out laughing, Tubbo and Phil were left in confusion, “Wait, what’s so funny about it?” “WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT’S SO FUNNY ABOUT IT TUBBO?!?! COOKING BLOGS ARE FOR GIRLS!!!” Phil shook his head, “That is sexist and incorrect Tommy, plus how did you think I come up with new ideas every time I make dinner!? I follow many of them” Tommy kept laughing, finding the thing hilarious, Tubbo tried to explain multiple times how it wasn’t “a girly thing” and how he shouldn’t go around saying thing like that, but Tommy had this thing with girls and all, no quote could ever surpass “Just killed a woman, feeling good!” After all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Tommy calmed down, they poured themselves a mug of milk and moved to the couch, playing Super Smash Bros while waiting for the cookies to finish baking, Phil had warned them that it would take forty minutes or so, but they were both determined to be the first ones to try Phil’s experiment. 

Between the cheers and salty screams, Phil was texting with friends, most of them were either married or already had a child, but he was happy with his situation, living with his brothers and happily single, so jealousy was the last thing he felt towards them.

At one point, Tubbo’s phone started buzzing, pausing the game he looked at the screen and his face immediately got serious, “I’m going to the bathroom” Tommy was too preoccupied being salty about a combo not working how he thought it would to notice his best friends mood dropping.

Phil noticed the brown-haired boy closing the bathroom with a gloomy face, but didn’t ask anything for the sake of privacy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had passed fifteen minutes from when Tubbo left the living room, Tommy was starting to get bored by mindlessly scrolling through the Instagram “for you” page and Phil was getting worried since no sounds could be heard from behind the door.

Tommy got up and yelled while walking towards the kitchen counter to pour himself another cup of milk, “TUBBO! HOW LONG WILL YOU STAY IN THERE?? I’M BORED” Phil smiled at the words of his younger brother, but no reply came from the other boy.

So Tommy, as the inpatient gremlin he is, walked up to the bathroom door, but as he was about to knock on it, quiet sobs came from the other side. 

Tommy instantly turned towards the older blonde boy that stood up as soon as he heard,” Tubbo?” Tommy asked while Phil gently knocked on the door, more quiet sobs replied.

“Tubbo are you ok?” as Phil’s voice reached the brunette’s ears, he finally spoke, “Phil?” 

The older brother opened the door to reveal Tubbo sitting on the small carpet in front of the sink, his arms wrapped around his legs, holding them close to his chest: their red puffy eyes were everything Phil needed to see.

Without waiting for permission to come in, Phil walked up to the boy and picked him up, Tubbo instantly wrapped his arms and legs around him as he got carried to the couch. Tommy took their phone and followed.

Phil grabbed a cushion and the fluffy comfort blanket that Techno always used when reading, wrapping it around Tubbo, he asked him what was going on, “N-nothing… It’s… really Phil It’s nothing…” Tubbo looked away, Tommy sat down next to him and hugged him, surprising both Tubbo and Phil. “If someone made you cry it means that is not “nothing” Tubbo, please… I want to help you” And to that, Tubbo started crying again, Tommy did his best to tightly embrace him meanwhile Phil rubbed soothing circles on their back. 

Tubbo then started explaining how a guy in his class found out about his bee plushie and made fun of them for it, to the point where if he doesn’t do his homework for him, he will say it to the entire class, but at the same time he was really mean towards him and it was pretty nerve-wracking.

“Tomorrow I’ll accompany you two to school and I’ll talk to the principal, we’ll show him the chats between you two if he doesn’t believe us. For now, ignore him mate, ok?” Tubbo dried his tears on his sleeve and nodded as Phil got up to take the cookies out of the oven, “ _ How dare he _ …” Tommy was spaced out but his tense features and clenched fists were signs that Tubbo knew oh too well, “Tommy please don’t get any wrong idea-” But the blonde’s mind was already set, “Don’t worry Tubbo,  _ I’ll make him pay _ …” but before the brunette could argue, Phil arrived with a plate full of steaming cookies and placed it on the coffee table, “Why don’t we watch a movie? Techno and Will won’t be home for a while” Tommy instantly proposed watching a post-apocalyptic movie.

They ended up watching “Mean Girls” while eating what are now nicknamed “comfort cookies”.

  
  



	15. Halloween tradition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween is my favourite holiday and I felt annoyed about not posting something for it, inspiration hit me and here we are~
> 
> Warning! Mention of blood? I think? It's fake blood for a costume btw, swearing
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Enjoy~

It was a tradition that the Pandel and the Berry brothers would go to the city’s annual Halloween festival together, all dressed up and ready to create chaos. And of course, like every year, the Pandel's were late.

The three were waiting at the meetup point, aka a crossroad, for the four late brothers to arrive, they could see dressed up people walking towards the city centre, making them worry: the festival would start soon, and it was a ten minutes walk from there, would they be able to make it in time?

“I’m not surprised, they do this every year” the three looked good together, Niki was wearing a nun costume, which made her blonde bangs shine in the mostly black outfit, Tubbo was wearing a beekeeper suit, he had also brought his bee plushie to go along, as a nice detail he coloured small stains on the suit in yellow to make it look like honey. Seeing the small boy speaking through the netted helmet was entertaining. 

“Yes Eret they do, but they give us a heart attack every time! Techno is usually on time but for some reason! On Halloween he’s late too!” Eret scuffed, grabbing his phone out of Niki’s purse.

He didn’t have a place to keep either his wallet, phone, or keys since he was wearing the strawberry dress Niki had made for him, to make it more into a costume he added a crown, but since it was quite chilly outside he put on the high leather boots, (yes, the five-inch ones, he needed practice so wearing them for a long time was a great excuse, plus, the fact that they covered most of his legs kept him warm, but he still used a pair of black stockings) and to wrap around his torso he used the bi flag, a perfect costume if you ask him.

A familiar shouting made them wary about the Pandel’s arrival  _ “WE ARE FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE BECAUSE OF YOU!” “IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!! I FORGOT!!!” “Because you forgot, technically it is your fault”. _

The four boys were arguing, as usual, Wilbur and Tommy yelling at each other meanwhile Techno made good points without the need of raising his volume.

From a distance, you could tell that Phil had a Mario costume, the only difference was the “P” instead of an “M”, and of course the bags under his eyes and the tired face of someone who constantly babysits three children.

“Hi guys! Sorry for the wait” The second one that stood out the most was Wilbur, who had a white lab coat and those plastic security goggles on his head, “Don’t worry Phil, we are used to it, but we need to start walking if we don’t want to be late” Niki gave them a soft smile as she slipped Eret’s phone back into her purse.

As they started walking, they complimented each other for their costumes, Erets and Tubbos getting the most praise since they were the more original out of the group.

Techno was behind everyone, mostly because that was where he always walked when with people, and partially because his coat was pretty long and it would have disturbed the other, his high collar and vampire’s teeth made it obvious who he was, he hated wearing lenses so he kept the glasses, but a stain or two of red dye on his face gave it a spooky touch, he also had the Minecraft diamond sword on his belt, why? 

Because yes.

“Tommy why do you have a sheet with two holes and a mouth on you-” “DON’T ASK TUBBO OK?!” Tommy used the excuse that he had forgotten that it was Halloween to cover up the fact that he was too lazy to come up with a costume idea, but because you couldn’t go in certain parts of the festival without a costume Phil and Wilbur took a sheet, threw it on him and called it a day, that was also the reason they were late. 

The night went well though, they had to sit down a couple of times because Eret got tired of walking in heels and Tommy broke a hole on Tubbo’s netted helmet, but all in all, it was a good time.

Oh, did I mention that Tommy spilled Raspberry juice on his sheet right as they arrived and had to go around with a pink-ish stain all night?

  
  



	16. French homework and a Dream ( 1/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Dream did the fatal mistake of choosing French over Spanish and now they have to suffer the consequences together
> 
> Enjoy~

Lunch break was sacred for Techno, it was that magic moment where he sat at a table alone, in the corner of the cafeteria with a book of his choice to read and block out the chaos of the fellow students. You know what they say: if you can't find peace, create your peace.

With lo-fi music or classical piano in his ears, he would peacefully eat his lunch, recharging his social energy (already consumed in the first half of the day) by not talking nor seeking company. Even though, from time to time, he would get some visitors: 

One of his brothers could drop by if they needed to talk to him or they were also already feeling exhausted, Skeppy would also sit with him and try to initiate conversations, in vain since Techno ends up ignoring him unless he needed something important.

All in all, Techno didn’t allow anyone to disturb or interrupt his moment of peace, neither he liked sharing his book or music with anyone… 

Well, anyone apart from Dream.

In between the rivalry for the smartest kid and best (nerd) Minecraft pvp-er, the two had started frequenting now and then, maybe studying at the library together or grabbing a bite after school before parting ways, all in all, they found to have a similar love for quiet company and taste in music.

So, to see Dream sit next to Techno, steal one of his earbuds, and tug the book a little closer for him to read as well wasn’t rare, but a treat to see.

“TALK TO ME TECHNO!!!” Skeppy had been trying to get his friend’s eyes off of the book for about five minutes or so, just to get completely denied by an unbothered and concentrated face. “Techno pleaseee!!!! I need attention!” his head fell on the table, “...I can tell” he finally replied while turning the page.

Skeppy groaned and went on bothering him for another five minutes.

Techno sighed, “Can’t you go bother someone else?” Skeppy was about to complain again, but a familiar laugh made the both of them stop and look at the direction it came from, “You’re so needy Skeppy”.

The boy in the green hoodie placed his tray next to Techno’s, leaving his backpack on the seat next to him, “YEAH! And this stupid pig isn’t giving me any attention!!!” after a second of silence they all giggled at Techno being addressed as “Pig”, something that only Skeppy could get away with. Not even Dream could call him that without either a complaint or a casual roast coming from the other teen as a consequence.

“Have you studied for tomorrow’s French test?” He took a bite of… whatever the cafeteria had made that day, he couldn’t really tell since it was so… revolting-looking, but it didn’t taste that bad and Dream was pretty hungry. Skipping breakfast was a habit of his so whatever he could eat at lunch was fine by him, it just needed to fill him up until the end of the day.

“Nah… I can’t remember some of the verbs, let alone when and how to use them” he replied before sipping on some water, “Same… some words are unpronounceable too… “ Dream and Techno both made the grave mistake of choosing French over Spanish as a second language, Techno made a very bad first impression with the teacher and Dream overslept three lessons in a month, let’s say that if they didn’t do good on this test… they could kiss goodbye a good French overall vote at the end of the year.

Skeppy exploded in a loud laugh, banging one of his fists on the table meanwhile holding his stomach, “Sucks to be you!” they sighed in defeat, Skeppy got convinced into choosing Spanish by a friend so he couldn’t relate to their problems since legends told that the Spanish teacher was a very nice person.

“I’ll leave you two to your nerdy problems, later losers!” Dream told him goodbye meanwhile Techno simply waved.

The blonde boy stretched his arms and grabbed both his phone and diary out of the backpack, flipping through it he nudged the other boy lightly, “We only have French for tomorrow… wanna study together?” Techno hummed a reply as the blondie took one of his earbuds, Techno reacted with a question: “Want to study at the library or..?” Dream’s head tilted, “Or what? We don’t have another place to study” Techno furrowed his brows for a second, “Well… no, you’re right”.

The reply made Dream curious, but he limited himself to finishing his meal in silence, enjoying the quiet company until the bell rang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“It’s already six pm?! We haven’t even finished memorizing this stuff!” Dream groaned in frustration while Techno just dropped his head on the book in front of him, they had been studying for two hours interrupted only by a bathroom break, and they weren’t even half-way done with their homework. 

“This will be the only low grade on my paper this year…” the low murmur was muffled by the fact that Techno’s head was still slumped on the books, “Oh come on…”, Dream rubbed out the tiredness from his eyes, “I know that I won’t get anything done once I get back home, my ADHD goes crazy when I’m studying French… it knows I don’t want to study it so it makes me think about everything but that!”, the blonde boy chuckled, “I can never focus when It’s French too…” 

  
Well, that was a slump, both of them knew that going part-ways wasn’t going to work… If they wanted a decent grade they had to have a study partner.

So Techno took a shot in the dark.

“Ok listen, I’ve got a plan: come sleep over at my place, my desk it’s a bit messy but if I throw everything on the ground we’ll fit, you can’t eat dinner with us because Phil already cooked it and it’s not enough for five people, it’s not enough- but we can go eat somewhere”.

Dream froze in genuine shock: he had never gone to the Pandel house, nor he had ever been invited by Techno anywhere really, he was usually the one that asked him to grab a bite together, Techno only ever asked him to study, and that was already pretty rare. So getting such an out-of-nowhere invitation to eat together AND sleep at his house was… very surprising.

“Uhh… sure, can I borrow a shirt to sleep in?” Techno nodded, “Well then… should we go eat now so that we have more time to study later?” Techno nodded again and they started packing up their stuff, grabbing books and pencils that scattered on the table while studying.

“McDonald’s?” Dream proposed, “McDonald’s” Techno replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, they were crunching on some fries, Techno texted the Pandel chat about Dream sleeping over, Phil agreed almost instantly, telling Techno where he could get some blankets and an additional pillow, the problems were Wilbur and Tommy that didn’t like the idea of having Dream in their house, (because they had a Minecraft server where they and Dream had a bit of a… “difference” of opinions…) but Techno told them to cry about it and closed the chat, reassuring the boy in the green hoodie that he could spend the night with him.

On their way home, Techno had noticed by reading the notifications that the Berry brothers had proposed a last-minute movie night, to which the other Pandel’s agreed, already counting Techno off, so it wasn’t a surprise that they met Wilbur and Tommy leaving when they arrived.

“I’m glad we are leaving, two tryhards together must be a revolting sight” Wilbur adjusted his coat as Tommy tied his laces, “I’m glad you guys are leaving too, we really need to study and my desk is a bit small, we can use the kitchen until you come back” Dream stifled a giggle, the passive-aggressive energy the Pandel had when speaking to each other was very entertaining, Techno turned to him and pointed at the clothes hanger behind the door, “Put your jacket there, oh and don’t forget to take your shoes off, I’ll get you a pair of slippers, Eret’s one should fit you” 

He opened the closet to almost disappear in it, “Bye big D! Have fun with TechnoNerd!” Dream cringed at Tommy’s goodbye while Wilbur snickered at it, “Bye… and please don’t call me that ever again” 

The front door closed as Techno dropped a pair of dark blue slippers in front of him, he thanked him, grabbed his backpack and followed the pink-haired boy while looking around:

the living room and the kitchen were in the same room, there was also no proper table, not that there was room for it, so he guessed that they ate on the kitchen counter. 

There were four doors in the room, the first one on the left before the kitchen, a pig sticker gave Techno’s room away, on the other side of it, next to the couch, there was a door with a big sign spelling “NO BITCHES ALLOWED” with an evil smile scribbled next to it, he guessed that was Tommy’s room.

Not too far away from Tommy’s room, there was another door, but this time nothing was on it, and the fourth door was to the right of that blank door aka on the opposite side of the front door. He guessed one was a room and one was the bathroom, there was a hole next to the fourth door though…

Techno sat on one of the stools and opened his backpack, “As I’ve said, we can stay here until the others come back, if you need the bathroom it’s this one” He pointed at the door directly behind him, door number three… but then…

“Why is there a hole next to that door” Dream pointed at the forth door, Techno smiled briefly, “Uhhh… It’s a long and secret story, but to give you an idea that is Will’s room” He blinked a couple of times to let the information sink in, Techno snapped him out of it by waiving his pen in front of his eyes.

“C’mon nerd, we have work to do.” To which Dream apologized and sat next to him, taking a deep breath before opening the french textbook.

  
  



	17. French homework and a Dream ( 2/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Dream did the fatal mistake of choosing French over Spanish and now they have to suffer the consequences together 
> 
> Enjoy~

“Please tell me that’s all of that…” Techno faceplanted into the book in front of him, Dream took his diary out of his backpack and started flipping through the pages, “Hold on… the text of Monday and the highlighted texts from page fifty to sixty-three- WE DID IT!” He exclaimed, Techno sighed in relief.

They had finished the reading and memorizing part of the homework, it was now ten pm and the others would come back soon, so Techno proposed a small break before getting back to do the second half of the test prep, yes there were small exercises on the textbook, but it was two or three of them for eleven pages, and after three hours of speaking and memorizing french words, Techno needed a break or he would have exploded. 

“Some fresh air would be nice… “ Dream stretched his arms above his head, Techno got off his stool and grabbed two glasses, “we can go to the roof, there is a vent that shoots out hot air in a corner” he poured some water and gave one of the glasses to Dream, “We can go sit there for a while”.

They both gulped down the water in one shot, “Sounds good, lead the way”, and so he did, getting their shoes back on and almost forgetting the door keys, they walked up to the last floor and exited one to the roof.

Techno was at home here, he and his brothers passed lots of time on this roof: Phil came here for the peace and silence (not having a room made this his safe space), Wilbur to sing and play the guitar, Tommy came here to unwind while Techno to simply look at the stars, but all of them came up here to think, to organize their thoughts.

“Wow…” Dream jumped on one of the big metal pipes and looked at the scenery, “It’s so… pretty… “ Techno smiled.

The tall buildings that surrounded them emanated little to no light so you could see how bright the stars were tonight, it wasn’t a full moon, but that small slice of light in the sky was enough to see the outline of objects in the dark. ”Yeah…” Techno sat down, hugging his jacket a bit tighter. 

Dream sat down next to him and yawned, Techno smiled again, “You’re pulling all-nighters too?” The other boy stared at him, blinking a few times, “Don’t think I didn’t notice the bags under your eyes deepening” Dream mouthed an “Oh” and turned the other way in embarrassment, “N-no no, no all-nighters, I just got back into speedrunning and the only time I do so is at night” he rubbed his hands together to warm them up and placed them into his pocket. 

Techno knew how cold it was up there, but Dream didn’t, his green hoodie wasn’t enough, not that Techno was much warmer than him even with the jacket on.

“It’s getting kinda cold… follow me” Techno got up and walked on the metal vents until he reached a corner of the roof, the noise of a fan had gotten louder now, and Dream understood why when the pink-haired boy jumped in front of a grate and his hair and clothing started moving.

“We can stay here for a while” Techno brought up the cap of his hoodie and sat down, “It can be annoying if we stay in front of it for too long, but for a bit, it will do” 

Dream mimicked the other boy and pulled his hoodie on before jumping into the stream of hot air.

Techno took off his glasses and looked up at the sky, without the lenses everything was pretty blurry, but that feeling of not being able to focus on anything made him relaxed: he didn’t have to worry about the world like this.

“Thank you for inviting me here, apart from the French homework everything is going great” Techno smirked, “Technically you came here for the homework, so that’s not good to hear” they laughed at the stupid joke and chatted a bit more until Dream sneezed. To avoid getting a cold, they went back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They caught the other Pandel brothers on the stairs, so when they entered home Techno and Dream moved their school work in Techno’s room, being that they only needed to do the exercises in the textbook, Techno didn’t need to shove everything on his desk to the floor since Dream was comfortable enough on Techno’s bed, but as time went by, Techno joined him.

It was around midnight now and they were laughing their asses off, looking at Minecraft and Among us memes. Their focus had left the room a long time ago and they both weren’t sure how Phil hadn’t woken up and checked up on them. 

“Oh come on… we have five more exercises Techno” Dream pushed the other boy who was scrolling through Twitter, “I’m done with this language, I’ll do them tomorrow before the test” Dream laughed at how done Techno actually looked, “Fine fine… wanna play something?” 

At the word “Play” Techno’s eyes light up, “Oh! Wait here, I’m grabbing something” he gestured at the other boy to stay silent before opening the door, Dream carefully closed both of their textbooks and placed the pens back into their respective pencil case.

When Techno came back, Dream excitement met his as he saw what he was holding, “I forgot Tommy had a switch!” Techno held up the Nintendo Switch like it was the holy grail to make the other boy laugh, “You know how to play Smash Bros right?” Dream nodded meanwhile Techno proceeded to set up the Switch on his monitor. “Phil bought us Steve, wanna bully nerds with the power of Minecraft?” Dream could do nothing but agree.

“So here is the plan” he started while they insta-locked Steve and searching for an opponent, “We protect each other while we mine, and we build, we just build, build until the limit and then drop on them with an anvil” Dream snickered at the powerful but toxic strat, “We could also stunt-minecart” Techno nodded as he was taking the thing seriously, “Yup… Oh! We can build to the side and camp them with the lava bucket!” Dream laughed at how toxic Techno’s strats were, but where is the fun if you can’t bully them?

After two hours of bullying, tea-pot laughs from Dream, and countless rage quits from the opponent they decided to stop and go to bed. 

“Oh my god… that was too funny” Dream held his belly as he was still giggling at the bullying that they just committed, it was two in the morning and they had a test in five-six hours. Hopefully, the studying they did previously would be enough to carry them through the tiredness.

“We need to do that again someday” Techno placed his glasses down and turned the lights off, “Yeah, we do…” Dream was interrupted by a yawn to which Techno smiled and wished him a good night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So? How did the test go?” Skeppy asked as the two friends sat down at the same table of the previous day, the two looked like walking corpses and their constant yawning and deep bags under their eyes didn’t help, “I feel like I passed, and that’s all I care about” Dream explained and Techno nodded before placing his arms in front of him and letting his head rest, “You guys look like you fought a hoard of zombies last night jeez” Skeppy sipped on his juice.

“If Smash Bros nerds count as zombies, then yeah, we did” Dream smiled at the reference while Skeppy looked at them in confusion.

  
  



	18. Nature’s effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno started working at the local vivarium and finds out that nature can change and calm even the most hyperactive people, just like Tommy
> 
> I did a poll on the Fd!au server about who my next fic should be focused on and Techno/Tommy won, so here you have it!
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Warning! Swearing
> 
> Enjoy~

“I’m sure they’ll love the flowers! Thank you and have a nice day!” Camille waved the last customers off and started cleaning the counter of the rotten leaves and flowers that she had cut off the last order, Techno was kneeling in front of a shelf busy applying tags on products.

“Techno are you almost done with those?” 

After saving some flowers from Wilbur’s room, Techno had taken a liking to tend plants and gardening in general, the local vivarium owner Camille had taught him many tips and tricks that made him a perfect employee for the job.

He was pretty hyped for his first day at work, well... it was more of a trial per se, it was a test to see how he would react to the human interactions and how fast he could get the hang of the profession, which went great in his opinion:

Camille was great at explaining how to take care of the plants and wrapping the pots for gifts, she was so elegant while she passed the ribbon around the wrapping paper Techno almost tripped by getting distracted while looking at her.

His job in the magic home of plants was pretty simple: water the plants that weren’t irrigated automatically, check for parasites, diseases, or rotten leaves, restock the expositive plants and help costumers for whatever they needed, and of course, if he didn’t know what to do, just call Camille or any other employee for help.

“You did great today Techno! The old couple you helped earlier seemed very satisfied!” Techno blushed at the compliment since he couldn’t handle them and ended up stuttering, “T-thank you…” 

“There are still thirty minutes before we need to close… Are you free to stay a bit later? I can show you how the irrigators system works and where the shelves outside go when closing the shop” He froze as he took his phone out of his pocket.

There where multiple messages coming from none other than the gremlin, and the last three (out of probably twenty all saying “I am bored” and “Answer pig” ) where what caused the strong reaction:

**Gremlin**

YOu are working at the plant place, right?

**Gremlin**

Big P and Big W won’t be home till late 

**Gremlin**

Im bored so im coming over

  
  


Oh no…

Oh no no no-

“Um... Camille? My brother is at home alone, can he wait for me here until I finish?” The kind girl did not hesitate for a moment, “Absolutely! Not many customers arrive this late so there will be no problem!” Techno released the breath he didn’t notice he was holding, texting angrily back at Tommy, cursing at him to wait until he answered before taking initiations.

Just after he learned how the irrigation system worked, a familiar red and white t-shirt popped into view, “If you want Techno, you can ask your brother to help you take care of the greenhouses, it’s an easy job and you said he was bored at home yes?” Techno nodded and thanked the owner of the vivarium, he walked up to Tommy, who as soon as he saw him, burst into a laugh.

“BWAHAHA!!! WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TECHNO?!” The pink-haired boy looked down at his outfit, which consisted of his school uniform, a pair of green rubber boots, and a cute green apron with a daisy onto it. “What are you laughing at Tommy?” his younger brother was holding his stomach, wiping a tear off of his eyes, “The apron! It’s so- Pffffff-!” Techno sighed, shaking his head, “You are an absolute child… Phil wears an apron when he cooks too and so does Tubbo when he is in art class! How is it funny to you?! It’s a simple piece of clothing!!!” He turned around hoping Tommy would follow, there was no way he was giving him a pair of scissors so a watering can should busy him enough to avoid boredness.

“Hey! I’m not a child! I’m a big man Technoblade you should know” he puffed his chest to look high and mighty, “And how do you not find aprons funny big T?! They are like a little skirt… ok fine ignore me then” noticing how Techno wasn’t turning around nor paying him attention, he followed him to the greenhouses in silence looking at the number of plants and flowers that were littered everywhere.

As soon as Techno stopped he handed Tommy a watering can full of water that he almost dropped, “WHOA- what the hell man?! This is heavy!” Ignoring his brother's complaints, he adjusted his glasses and grabbed a pair of scissors, “Water the third and fifth row, don’t get the leaves wet, pour it directly on the soil and-” Techno turned to face him, “Don’t make a lake in the pot, stop watering as soon as you made a slow circle around the plant” As soon as he finished talking, he kneeled in front of the first plant of the first row, leaving Tommy with a heavy watering can and overcomplicated instructions.

“ _ Don’t make a lake and don’t do this a-and don’t do that gne gne gne… _ Ugh what a pain in the ass” Tommy started to do as Techno instructed, but as time went on, something in him changed, going from a grunting face and not caring if he poured too much water, to a more relaxed expression, softly moving the leaves aside so water wouldn’t get on them.

Techno didn’t notice this change at first since he was too focused on removing dead flowers and leaves, but when he looked up to check if the gremlin was doing ok, he stopped himself from talking when he noticed that Tommy was crouched down, holding a ladybug in his hands.

Techno smiled at the sight of his brother becoming calmer when in contact with nature, he was so cute… 

Quickly snapping a picture and sliding his phone back in his pocket he walked up to him, kneeling as well. “What’cha looking at?” 

Tommy didn’t bother looking at his brother, his eyes were fixated on the small bug, “A Ladybug… it has five spots… Does that mean it’s five years old?” Techno softly chuckled, “No, that’s a common misconception Tommy, the spots are to warn predators that they don’t taste good, a self-defense mechanism” Tommy looked up at Techno and back to the ladybug, “But why five?” the older brother spotted another one of the small creatures, he waited for it to walk on his finger and held it close to Tommy’s one, “It represents which species it is, look- they both have five spots, meaning they come from the same category” Tommy added nothing, too absorbed into admiring the small bug pacing around the palm of his hand, instead, Techno placed his one back on the plant, snipping away a molded leaf, “Farmers believe that if they find a ladybug with less than seven spots means that they’ll have a good harvest, the contrary if it has more than seven, it’s only a folk legend though” Tommy decided to follow suit and moved his hand closer to the plan, allowing the small red and black insect to go back on the plant it came from. 

“C’mon, your watering can’s empty, let’s go fill it up” The blonde boy smiled and nodded, grabbing the empty plastic container and following his older brother, looking at the variety of flowers and plants the greenhouse sheltered. 

The rest of the time spent tending to the plants was calm and relaxing, nature really changed Tommy since he didn’t say once that he was bored or he never tried to start an argument, he looked at peace watering the small plants, kneeling to smell the flowers and making sure they weren’t diseased.

“Do you want to cut off the brown leaves? You look like you want to look at the plants a bit closer, I can water the rest” Tommy was surprised when Techno held in front of him the pair of scissors, he hesitated for a second, making sure that his brother was confident in his decision, but all he got from Techno was a soft smile.

Tommy remained in this unusual state all the way back home, let’s say that this moment of… “peace” was ruined when Wilbur came home and showed Tommy the picture Techno took of him behind his back. 

  
  



	19. Never again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't supposed to be a fanfic at first, It was multiple days that I didn't write anything and I felt pretty down so I tried to write as smoothly as possible and once I realized that I was unconsciously writing Fd! Au I just went along and made it a fic.
> 
> I remember that Minetra said that when Wilbur broke the vlog gun Tommy started to ignore Wilbur completely and Wilbur hated it so much he was afraid of it happening again, so I went down that route
> 
> Warnings! Angst, lots of angst :)

The bright constellated sky above him was inspiring, it felt like he was on a stage with millions of small little lights encouraging him and cheering him on.  
Though, the sound of a fan coming from a nearby vent reminded him that he was sitting on the roof of his apartment complex. It brought him down from the beautiful dream that was the night sky, anchoring him to his body and to this earth.

Wilbur had lost track of time a while ago now, it felt like hours had passed since he came up here, but it could have been his perception of time fooling with him.   
Gently strumming the cords of his loyal guitars, he spaced out, allowing the soft melody and the nightly breeze to bring him to the special place he went whenever he started playing: his heart, a warm and familiar feeling enveloped him and his mind always went still, quiet, not daring to break his trance. 

First, he started humming along, the need of singing along building slowly in the back of his head, but he had no lyrics, this wasn’t a song he had written down, it was a tune that the stars inspired, but a burning feeling in the back of his throat begged at him to sing, to let his voice out, to pay respect to the celestial beings that led him on in his time of instability.

There were lyrics he had written for a song he never finished composing… 

Singing softly, he tried to remember all of the words, humming to fill what he could not recall.

He took a deep breath, getting frustrated at the holes in his memory, but he started again, his face relaxed once more. The words he had written one hot afternoon, feeling sad about the entire world and some more, started fitting perfectly with the tune inspired by the stars, who were still patiently looking at him, not expectantly or judgingly.

If it wasn’t for the state of mind he was in, tranced by the melody and the night sky, he could have heard a door open, a few steps, and the rustling of clothes.

And maybe, just maybe, he could have also heard the soft sobs coming from behind the hollow metallic vents and conducts littering the roof.

Wilbur came to this place after a quote on quote fight with his brother, differently from their usual friendly brawls and empty insults, Tommy and Will started arguing, he felt bad since the spark of this explosion was pretty stupid and irrelevant, but it all became serious when Tommy started ignoring Wilbur, with or without the other brothers present.

It hurt when Tommy did so, Wilbur felt guilty down to his core whenever it happened, so that’s why he was up there, that’s why he took comfort in the stars, music, and the breeze of the night.

“I’m sorry Wilbur-” Between sobs, Tommy whispered quietly enough for him to not hear, holding close to his chest his knees to try and fight back the shaking crying brought.  
He hastily got to his feet and slammed the door to the stairs, the raw metal sound made Wilbur stop, it felt like something dropped,”I-is there anybody there?” something broke. 

After everything ended, they never found out what triggered that feeling, whether it was Tommy tripping down the stairs while running to his room or a bright star dropping from the sky, Wilbur never completely recovered from that terrible feeling, so any time the two brothers argue, Wilbur apologises immediately if Tommy starts holding a grudge, because whatever that feeling was, Wilbur never wanted to feel it again.


	20. Gremlin life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy has the bad habit of sitting in very unhealthy positions, Phil decided it's time to try and fix the behaviour by buying a back straightener, in consequence, Tommy reveals his true height

It was around five pm in the Pandel household, Wilbur was aggressively typing away on his computer meanwhile Tommy sat upside down on the couch as the gremlin he was.

Seeing Tommy Pandel sitting properly was almost a Christmas miracle (or he was nervous, one of the two), he somehow always found the weirdest ways to sit, being it crossing legs or hugging them, the positions he sat in always looked incredibly uncomfy, contrary to what the teen always stated. 

And, you may ask yourself, how was he managing to play the switch while having his head dangling off of the couch? His response was always along the line of “Being a pro gamer” or “Being too good” but Techno and Wilbur came up with a more realistic conclusion: “He is a gremlin Techno, he has powers we normal human beings don’t have” Wilbur explained, cracking a smile when turned away from them, “Ok but how does he...?” Techno tried to formulate a sentence, failing miserably, “You know what, you’re right, I shouldn’t question it” Phil was laughing his ass off in the background, the others just enjoyed the gorgeous sound.

He’d be lying if he said that the doorbell didn’t jumpscare him, but he was a big man, so the doorbell totally didn’t catch him off guard, asking who it was, it turned out to be a delivery man, asking for “Mr. Pandel”.

“ _ WIIIIIILL _ IT’S PHIL’S DELIVERY CAN YOU GO?” He wined out, not wanting to put on his shoes and jacket, a muffled  _ “NO YOU DICKHEAD I’M STUDYING, YOU GO” _ was yelled by the older brother, Tommy sighed and kneeled to tie his shoes, at this point arguing was useless, he tried at least.

Grabbing his pair of keys and tying his shoes, Tommy left the apartment to take the stairs-- let me correct myself, to hop on the railing and slide down one floor at a time, reaching the apartment’s complex entrance in an instant. Getting back up though, that took a bit more time and energy.

The cardboard box was pretty light, every time Tommy threw it in the air and caught it, it was obvious that something was in there, but it was… lighter than Tommy was expecting.

Closing the front door behind him and kicking his shoes off to a corner, he threw Phil’s package on the floor next to the kitchen, while he was already there, he grabbed the milk carton out of the fridge and poured it into two cups. 

“How’s homework going along Wooly?” Tommy pushed the door open with his back and entering Wilbur’s room, an annoyed sound came out of the boy with his hand in his hair. “I- I- can’t- I- You don’t want to know” Wilbur rubbed his eyes, too focused on his own thoughts to notice the nickname that would usually get a reaction. “I’ve been working on this fucking presentation for  _ hours _ and I’m still not done! I- I’m not even half-way!” The blonde boy looked at the computer’s screen and then to his brother's tired and stressed face, “Here” he placed the almost overflowing cup of milk between Wilbur and the keyboard, “Take a break bro, don’t overwork yourself”. Wilbur muttered out a  _ “...Thanks”  _ and took a sip, Tommy did the same, “I would gladly take a break but the faster I get this shit done the earlier I can be over in the living room” 

Since it wasn’t often the brothers would stay together in a room apart from the living room, whenever one said, “I’m coming to the living room” usually meant they were free and could hang out with the others. Techno and Wilbur between homework, club tasks and hobbies spent most of their time busy in their room, so they mostly used the term, Tommy and Phil had fewer things to take care of at home since Tommy’s club was a sport and Phil after work wanted to spend time with his brothers, they both rarely had things to do.

“Alright…” Tommy said almost sadly, wrapping his arms around his brother’s frame, giving Wilbur a back hug, “I’ll leave you to it then” The fluffy-haired boy would have reacted to many things that Tommy did very differently if he wasn't focused on his work, so Tommy prefered to leave him in his trance, Wilbur hummed in response and the blonde boy almost left the room, but as a shiver made him realize just how cold in there truly was, he turned the heater to a higher setting and finally left the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Techno and Wilbur burst into a resounding laugh, Phil was barely able to keep it in. “I KNOW YOU GUYS JOKE ABOUT ME BEING A GREMLIN, BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH!!!” 

Techno had arrived not too long after Tommy left Wilbur’s room, surprisingly, he didn’t close himself into his room like Tommy was expecting, he instead changed into sweatpants, a comfy sweater and collapsed face-first into the couch, “Very graceful Techno”, the (probably sassy) answer was muffled by the pillows, Tommy didn’t ask him to repeat. 

But, when questioned the change of routine, the pastel pink-haired boy shrugged it off: 

“I did most of my homework with Dream at the library” he took the hair tie on his wrist and tied his slightly-longer-than-usual hair into a small ponytail, “...Emphasis on the “most” he sighed, “Geroge and Sapnap joined us and started making too much noise, that’s why I arrived later than usual and that’s why I’m here right now”.

Phil instead had walked into the three boys playing Super Mario Maker (they didn’t bother buying the second one, plus the first one works perfectly fine), Tommy informed him about the package as soon as he entered the kitchen, and now we are here.

“Tommy, I know this sounds like a joke, but I’m serious! You sit in the weirdest ways all the time, that’s why you have back pain frequently!” Techno and Wilbur calmed down a bit, Tommy still wasn’t very happy about the situation.

“So what?!” Phil opened the box, revealing the cause of all this laughing and half-shouting, “So, it would be better if you sat down straight, especially since you are still growing, it’s important that your back stays straight, so I bought you this” he held out the back straightener, the younger boy looked at it in disgust. “Oh come on Tommy, Don’t give me that look! Turn around and try it on” He sighed, “Ok boomer…” Tommy whispered, “What did you just call me?!”

After a little back and forth, Tommy accepted his torture and allowed Phil to put the… thing, on.

“See it’s not that bad-  _ Oh my god _ you are taller” Tommy turned around to see all of his brother’s in shock, “Now what?” already annoyed by the whole situation, he spat out. 

“Stand next to Techno Tommy” Phil told him, and as soon as they got side by side, Wilbur had to stifle a laugh, “ Oh… My…  _ God… _ ” Phil was speechless, Techno looked down in defeat, “Tell me Phil, how bad it is”, “HAHAH- TECHNO HE IS AS TALL AS YOU!!!” Wilbur spat out, holding his stomach, “Oh no… Oh no my legacy…!” Techno cupped his face with his hands, “My respect and pride… they are gone now…” He dramatically recited, all of them laughed at the hilarious situations: With the back straightener, Tommy was even closer to Techno’s height, a thing that scared the pink-haired boy quite a lot.

“You are going to wear that at school for a few days as a test,” Phil told him while cutting the box to throw it away, “It shouldn’t give you trouble, but if it does you’ll wear it at home” Tommy blinked, “WEAR THIS?! AT SCHOOL?!” Aaaaand of course he didn’t hear Phil saying anything else but those words, “A-are you crazy Phil? I can’t wear this at school!” Tommy waved his hands around to try and make a point, Wilbur sat at the counter and replied immediately, “What? You scared of heights?” he teased, the young blonde boy looked at him, pretty annoyed at the joke.

Phil spoke up before they started barking at each other, “If you wear it underneath a shirt it won’t show, doesn’t matter what you say, you are wearing it tomorrow.” Tommy rolled his eyes, “B-but I- I can’t-!” “No complaining” Phil interrupted him, closing the conversation. 

Wilbur leaned to the side and brought a hand to muffle the whispering for everyone apart from Tommy,  _ “You are going to look like a walking stick like that” _ he giggled, “SHUT UP WILBUR!!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The problem with wearing this back straightener wasn’t the thing itself, the problem was how it changed Tommy’s body appearance, anyone in the school would have noticed that from a day to another he became taller, and explaining to everyone that it was a back straightener annoyed Tommy quite a bit-

“Wooohoo what happened Tommy? You look taller!” Tubbo exclaimed as soon as he saw the blonde boy, “Tell me more…” he rolled his eyes, already hating every bit of this. 

Tubbo and Tommy took the bus from the same stop, and since the Pandel’s apartment was further away than the Berry’s, Tubbo patiently waited every morning at a crossroad for the blonde to arrive and walk to the bus stop together. Wilbur needed the car after school so he didn’t use the bus, Techno usually went with Wilbur, Tommy still went by bus just to keep Tubbo company.

“A back straightener? They totally ran out of fantasy for names… also I can see why Phil got you one” Tommy raised a brow at the other teen while they entered the bus, “What? Your back is always everything but straight, especially in class” Tubbo swiped his public transport card, “I guess… I still don’t think I need one though…” Tommy copied the action, grabbing onto a handle before the bus started up again, “But Phil said this is a test drive, yes?” Tommy nodded, slipping the phone out of his pocket to check the time, the bus was running five minutes late. 

“So you just have to keep it today and that’s it! C’mon Tommy It’s not that bad!” Tubbo smiled innocently, making Tommy do as well, “Ugh- I guess it’s fine, as you said, it’s just one day” he slipped his phone back into his pocket after catching a glimpse of Phil’s message on the Pandel/Berry group chat saying:

**Philza Minecraft**

Have a good school day everyone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tommy felt incredibly uncomfortable walking down the hallway, every student turned as he, Tubbo, and Techno walked side by side, the number of whispers, stares, and pointing also triggered Techno’s social anxiety and self-consciousness in Tubbo, “I hate this SO much…” it was obvious they were looking at Tommy’s height, Techno walking next to him made it even more relevant, “Yeah… I feel bad for you Big T” Tubbo rubbed his arm, peeking at the blonde boy.

“Well, have fun being the center of attention today, go to Will for tips” Techno waved the two teens off and headed for his class, they followed suit. 

The day went all in all well, with all of the attention he got he felt like Wilbur with the ladies, problem is, most of them weren't ladies, they were classmates and teammates from his club. 

The teachers also noticed (why wouldn't they) and asked about it, half-way into the day he was already sick and tired to repeat why he was taller and all that story.

”So this is your natural height? All of you are so tall…” Tommy had stumbled on the ”Dream team” on his way to practice, stopping to say hi they ended up being a whole conversation, but he didn't mind, for once he was early so stopping for a chat was doable and welcome, ”Or, you are simply short” Sapnap teased George, the shortest of the group. 

”I do have to say Tommy” Dream finished scribbling whatever on his diary, ”for being that tall and decently strong, you are quite thin” the others looked at the blonde teen and nodded in agreement, Tommy was pretty thin for someone that could lift Techno, I mean Techno is quite light, the man doesn't exercise but doesn't eat much either so…

”Pfff, with that red and white shirt you look like a candy cane” Dream and George laughed at the nickname, sassy Sapnap was normal Sapnap, but Tommy refused to go down without a fight, ”Whatever you say panda” Sapnap faked an offended reaction, the rest of the teens kept laughing at the nicknames. 

Waving goodbye to the three friends, he made his way through the outside to his club meeting on the running track.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

”Ugh! I can't do this anymore!!!” He stretched, making his chair rock back a bit, ”I guess it must be annoying to have that on the whole day…” Tubbo rested his head on his hand, leaning on the library's table, ”No- I'm not talking about the straightener! I'm talking about this stupid chemistry bullshit!” Tubbo laughed at the hate of homework Tommy had, ”I also thought that this thing would give me problems too” he pointed at his back, ”But I can barely feel it really, this test on the other hand…” he sighed as Tubbo kept on laughing, glad that at least he was having a good time. 

A harsh shush came from behind the front desk, they both mouthed a “sorry” and leaned closer to whisper, “I can’t stand being in this… place for nerds anymore, wanna go get something?” Tommy suggested, Tubbo sighed, “Tommy, you did terrible in the last chemistry test! You need to study seriously for this one unless you want to fail the class completely!” The blonde rolled his eyes, “Jeez… why do I care about your grades more than you do! I feel like Phil’s last mouthful would have made you take a hint…” the brunette looked down at his books just to close them, “C’mon, we’ll go get Starbucks and then we can study, hopefully slurping on some hot chocolate will make you focus more” he got up and started putting his books back into his green backpack, Tommy exhaled a “Yesssss” and started doing the same.

The chocolate did end up helping, but Phil ultimately decided that he would have to wear the back straightener regularly, now Tommy calls it the “Curse straightener”, but all of this was part of the “Gremlin life”


	21. Girls and Pigs night out: Middle child thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno asks his trusted friend to keep him company after a loophole of homework, but the sly girl knows something is going on in the mind of our beloved pink-haired boy
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~
> 
> (I wanted to add in that I started writing this after I got overwhelmed by Mcc 13, so sorry if this is a bit all over the place, also the very start of it is pretty much how I felt in that moment)
> 
> Warning: Swearing
> 
> Enjoy~

Highlighted words and complicated phrases started to melt into one another, reading was getting difficult.

Thoughts about Greek mythology, fantasies about fries and algebra problems were overlapping.

He slapped the book closed, covering his eyes to block out any light from reaching his vision.

”Techno? Are you ok?” 

Wilburs worried voice entered his mind with force, making everything rush off to a corner and stand still, finally a bit of silence.

”I wouldn't say ”ok” but yeah, I'm good” Techno took his hand off of his eyes, getting used to the light by blinking a few times, he then looked at his brother leaning on the doorframe, his face more worried than his tone.

”You have been studying all day Techno, it's almost nine pm and you haven't eaten a single bite since breakfast!” the pink-haired boy looked at his feet, well that explained the random thoughts of fries…

Mmm… Fries…

Welp, sometimes even the best needed a break huh...

”I need fresh air…” he rubbed his face, the older brother agreed, ” Yes you definitely need that, you know what? I'll keep you company and come on the roof too-” Techno interrupted him, ”No, no… I'm, going completely out, like, out of the building” he explained, his brain having difficulty making a proper sentence, let alone explaining a thought. 

”Oh…” Wilbur looked down, ”Ok, just don’t stay out too late” and left the room, closing the door behind him out of habit, Techno sighed, melting in his chair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A chill breeze hit him as soon as he closed the door of the apartment complex, making him shiver from the sudden temperature change.

The cold air made his thoughts freeze, he took a deep breath before starting to walk, whichever direction he could have taken would have led him to a known ground, so he simply walked without thinking too much about where to go, perks of living in a city since childhood.

It felt extremely relaxing to walk between the city’s night lights with a chill tune and fresh air, after hours of non-stop studying this is what he needed to pull the plug of his mind away from all those overcomplicated thoughts.

He regained consciousness of where he was when a big yellow ”M” shined in the dark blue sky, as soon as it came into view a rumble came out of his stomach, so without much thought, he pulled out his phone:

_ Beep… _

_ Beep… _

_ Beep- _

_ ”Hello?” _

”Good evening Niki”

_ ”Oh! Good evening Techno!” _

”Have you had dinner already?”

_ ”No…? Why do you- Oh my God it's already nine? I was so busy studying I didn't realize it!” _

He smiled, Techno and Niki were opposites, he was antisocial, she was social, he was tired, she was solar, but both of them had the habit of getting stuck into this loop of homework that made them forget about eating, sleeping, and drinking water, as bad as the habit was, it was that way with no way of changing it.

_ ”Ugh! Now that you made me think about it I'm super hungry!” _

”Good, come to McDonald's, I'm buying you chicken nuggets” 

A groan came from the other end of the line.

_ ”Techno I’ve been gaining too much weight lately, I can't eat fast food again!”  _

”Why? You need to lose weight to get a partner? Nah, eating fast food with me is way more important, also you already look beautiful, and if you disagree, that's another good reason for you to come here so I can tell you that in person while eating nuggets”

_ ”I-...” _

Bingo

She sighed.

_ ”You’re right, eating fast food with you is more important, just letting you know, chicken nuggets won't be enough for me this time” _

They giggled.

”I'll get you whatever, just get your ass here”

_ ”Princess Niki is on the way to rescue you Prince Techno! Just give me five minutes!” _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking in the almost empty McDonald, they sat down in their conveniently empty favourite spot, two couches next to a window but in the corner of the room, allowing them to look outside at the cars driving by and to stay away from most customers.

”C’mon Techno! You have been buying dinner every time!” he sat down, placing his tray on the table and checking his phone for any important messages, ”Sorry I can't hear you” Niki, clearly frustrated, sighed, ”You win, but next time I’m buying food” he smiled at the determination of his friend, feeling once again blessed for their presence.

”Well then thank you for the food!” they both took a sip of soda and almost spit it out, laughing at how first thing first they did the same action at the same time.

Dipping a fry into the ketchup, he carelessly waved it around while talking, ”So what you're telling me is, the old art room, which was used by the photography club without the principal’s approval, is getting renovated for the new drama club because it's president is the child of a rich family, even if the photography club doesn't have a room and the drama club already has?!” finally, he ate the fry, Niki finished chewing on her bite and added a bit, ”Yep, just because the president wants to be an actor and needs to flex on everyone, also because the photography club president is dating the drama president’s ex, they might not get the old drama club room just because his father has the money or whatever” she took a sip of soda, ”God I hate the spoiled kids… The photography club was about to make a city-centred black and white exhibit and I was really looking forward to it…” She took another bite of the hamburger, Niki wasn’t kidding when she said that chicken nuggets weren’t going to be enough, she ordered a medium menu while Techno a large soda and large fries, the chicken nuggets were to share.

“So” She covered her mouth to speak, “Why did you call me?” The pink-haired boy nuzzled into his coat, “I wanted to make sure you had eaten something” he ate another fry. “I appreciate the concern” she admitted, “but that’s not what I asked and you know it” the chicken nugget container now had one less nugget, “What, do I need a reason to call you?” Niki sighed, “Techno I know you, when we meet up for fast foods at this hour it’s always because you need something” it was no use, hiding something from Niki was almost impossible, especially if it was something non-material.

“There isn’t a… “real reason” why I called you actually” since it seemed serious, out of habit she started munching slower, allowing her to hear better, “I was walking around and when I saw the McDonald sign, I thought of calling you since your habits on Sunday don’t really change, I knew you were studying” Niki awkwardly sipped her soda, feeling called out and making Techno smile, “Plus, you know me, I’m too shy to order large fries and a large soda and then sit by myself…” It was Niki’s turn to smile, an aww from the girl made the boy blush a bit. 

“That’s fine Techno but… there is something else, isn’t there?” Techno took his phone out once again, noticing and reading the text made him noticeably stiffen up.

“Techno?” He looked up, “What’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything” silence fell for a moment, but when Techno’s gaze started to wander, all he could see was a warm smile from his friend.

He sighed, mustering up courage, “I got offered a job at the cafe in front of the school… and it pays way more than the vivarium job” Niki jumped in her seat, “That’s wonderful Techno!” but her reaction made him curl up even more, “Y-yeah…”, she tilted her head in confusion, “Wait...What’s the problem then?” Techno opened his mouth but nothing came out, he sighed again, “The problem is, it pays way more than my current, and I should take it so I can help Phil and Wilbur with the bills but…” he stopped, Niki smiled at him, leaning over the table to get closer to him, “Get it off your chest Techno, I promise I won’t tell the other” she whispered in the sweetest voice, feeling reassured, he continued, “...but I don’t want to…” Niki blinked a few times, “You don’t want to what?” he shifted in his seat, a light bulb turned on in the girl’s mind. 

“Oh!” She made Techno jump, “You don’t want to stop working with plants!” he shyly nodded and she couldn’t help but smile, “Well, you don’t have to quit working at the vivarium! The owner is your friend right? You could take the other job and help at the vivarium in your free time” Techno took a reflective sip, followed up by an almost-cold fry, “I guess… but the other job would take up most of my time and… homework is also a priority…. the rest of the time is for staying with my brothers… I don’t know if I could find time for it and I would end up neglecting it“ He sighed, “... Like every other hobby I ever had…” she tilted her head, “What?” he looked away like he didn’t say anything. Niki sighed.

The atmosphere became denser, heavier, awkward, something that rarely happened between Techno and Niki, the boy with the glasses predicted this would happen when he spoke about what was on his mind, the reason why he had avoided talking about it, but the curiosity of the girl with the black hair and white locks insisted, who was he to say no?

When she had finally finished her burger, she looked at her hands and back up to her friend. “What if you don’t take the job then?” the sudden question made Techno snap out of his thoughts, “How?” confused, she asked, “What do you mean how? Phil and Wilbur are working so that you and Tommy can live your adolescence how you want it, right?” The words hurt, Techno felt guilty about not helping to pay the rent, he felt guilty for something that Phil had told him a thousand time he shouldn’t, Niki was right, Phil was doing it for them, hell he was even reluctant of Wilbur helping him, but still…

“I know it’s hard to accept that someone works his ass off for you...” the light in her eyes disappeared, “Especially when you see them come back every night tired, with deep bags under their eyes and barely standing…” Niki looked out the window, Techno had forgotten about it, Niki lived his same situation at home, Eret was the only one working in the Berry family, he had also dropped out of college to support his siblings, just like Phil. Niki had also the same age as Techno, the thought of getting a job to help somehow must have passed in her mind too. 

She reached out for her soda, all of the ice was melted and the taste had gotten watery, “Eret always prefered that I did not start working until I was eighteen, he said that he prefers for me to look after Tubbo at least ‘till he’s seventeen and more independent…” she finally looked at Techno, straight in the eyes, “You have Tommy too” he gulped air. 

Making sure that Tommy was ok had always been a priority of his, without showing it in fear of being called “weak”, he helped his little brother as much as he could, by bullying him or helping him with homework, he always made sure to be there for him and to never make him feel lonely, yeah, he was sixteen and could look after himself, he grew fast just like all of his brothers, but Techno couldn’t help but doing- no… continuing, what Wilbur did when he was younger, Techno sometimes even felt bad when Wilbur helped or looked after him, leaving Tommy alone, but Will had two brothers to look after, Techno had Tommy and Tommy alone.

  
  


After reflecting on what Niki had told him, Techno made up his mind: He was going to talk about the job to his brothers, either way, Phil would have told him to keep his job at the vivarium, no matter if he didn’t or did need help with the bills, but Wilbur would have told him the truth, no doubt.

It was starting to get late, Niki yawned, “We should go, It’s almost eleven and I have to review an essay” Techno nodded and got up from the comfortable seat, grabbing his and Niki’s tray in the meantime.

Once out, they both shivered, it had gotten colder than when they both left their houses, “Was Tubbo at home when you left?” might as well make some small talk until they had to eventually split up, “No… also you don’t need to talk you know?” oh well, she turned to face him, “Silence is also enjoyable, don’t you think?” What a delicate way of telling him to shut up, the girl had always been kind, she was also very good at talking, her words were always on point.

As they walked side by side enjoying the silence of the night, their breath came out as small clouds of smoke, the lights of the city made the sky look pale without the stars, but it was none the less enjoyable.

“Good night Techno, see you tomorrow!” She looked once more at him before taking her path home, Techno mumbled a goodbye and turned the opposite direction, a vibration from his phone made him jump, slipping it out of his pocket Wilbur’s text appeared:

**Anteater looking ass**

Where are you? It’s getting late

Just as worried and caring as he used to be when he and Tommy were younger, he smiled, slipping his phone back into his pocket, there was no point in replying, he was standing at his apartment complex door. 

  
  



	22. The Pink hair prank - The next day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is supposed to be a sequel to “The pink hair prank”, I’d recommend reading that before this one. 
> 
> Techno has to now live with the consequences of his brother’s prank, and going to school with his new hair colour is the first step. His anxiety and hatred of being the centre of attention isn’t helping, but hopefully everything will be alright. 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Enjoy~

“GET UP FUCKHEAD WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!” Wilbur shouted, Techno groaned, bringing his sheets to cover his head.

It was almost time to get going, ten more minutes and they would have been late for school, but Techno had no intention of getting out of his bed this morning, no way, not after his hairs getting dyed pastel pink and realizing that he had school the next day, as much as the colour was amazing, going to school like that? No. Way. In. Hell.

Techno never did such stubborn scenes towards not going to school, hell if he didn’t go the amount of stuff he had to retrieve was too overwhelming, so it was easier going and not getting drowned in more homework than he already was. 

A soft knock broke the silence, “Hey Techno, you got ten minutes to get ready” Phil cracked the door open, allowing a bit of light to shine on the mess of the boy’s room, “I don’t want to Phil…” the mumbling muffled by the sheets made the statement almost silent, but the older brother heard it loud and clear... half expecting that from the previous day’s events. 

“Techno…” Phil entered the room and sat down at the side of the bed, looking at his younger brother covered by the sheets from head to toe, how was he breathing in there?

After Phil had come home the previous day, he established that pranks involving physical appearance were only allowed during the summer so that no one had to walk in school bald from one day to another, still, Techno’s hair remained pink and his social anxiety was most likely through the roof right now, he couldn't imagine what it would be like with everyone’s eyes on him.

“I understand that going to school like this will be embarrassing…” Phil sighed, “But if you don't go to school today you’ll have to go tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that” he smiled softly, ”Skipping today won't do you any good.” the pastel hair peeked from the sheets, he probably needed to breathe, but Techno was smart, he knew that Phil wasn't talking bullshit.

“Plus, you rarely skip school, you would attract even more attention if you skipped one day and appeared with pink hair after” another good point, the last one he needed to convince Techno. Phil was right no matter how much he didn't like it.

“Fine…” stretching his sleepy limbs he got out of bed, greeted by an irritated Wilbur: “WE HAVE SEVEN MINUTES TECHNOBLADE, SEVEN MINUTES AND WE’RE SCREWED!” he was pacing in front of the front door, fidgeting with his keys as he did so, “It’s not my fault my hair is pink” he casually replied while heading for the bathroom, ”Would have gotten out of bed willingly if that wasn't the case” Wilbur stopped.

How was Techno so good at making people feel guilty? One moment he was agitated about being late for school and the other he felt like a dickbag. But at this point all he could do was pray Techno wouldn't panic about the attention and questions he would get in class, he knew his brother was strong, this was going to be (hopefully) a walk in the park. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Aww are you nervous big T?” Tommy teased him when Wilbur pointed out that Techno was tense as a guitar string about to break, “OF COURSE I AM TOMMY!!!” the boy started laughing, “WHY WOULDN’T I BE?!” he calmed himself, taking some deep breaths, Wilbur placing a hand on his shoulder for support, “Bruhh…” he hummed, “This is way worse than the first day of high school… “ he cupped his head with his hands, “Well, we’re here” Wilbur pulled the handbrake and turned off the car, “Aw come on big T! I know you can do it” Tommy pulled a thumbs up while getting out of his seat, he’ll never admit it but the teasing and the support of his brother made the situation ten times better.

But just as he thought things were calming down, Skeppy’s reaction made it all worse. 

“C’mon man, please stop…” he clutched his backpacks’ handles as Skeppy barely walked by how much he was laughing, attracting even more attention to them, “Oh my GOD Techno!!!” he kept laughing, “You look amazing!” Techno blushed at the sarcastic compliment, “Shut up dude…”. The cheerful boy kept laughing, not believing his eyes that Technoblade, the best Minecraft PvPer of the school and the biggest nerd, had dyed his hair pastel pink, it was just hilarious.

“So Tommy and Will did it?” he whispered while the history teacher went on one of his rambles, “Mh-hm…” fidgeting with his black and pink dice, he hummed, “But- How did they dye your hair without you realizing it? Did you pass out or something?” he sighed, “I fell asleep in the kitchen… “ And Skeppy knew that when Techno was sleeping nothing and I repeat NOTHING will wake him up, the dude slept in the loudest and most uncomfortable places in the most uncomfortable positions ever, the boy could see how the brothers wouldn’t have had a hard time dying his hair undisturbed. 

“Mr Pandel, keep the chatting out of my class please” Skeppy brought a hand to his mouth to cover the giggles, Techno rolled his eyes, “Oh and I do not approve dying hairs of such... unnatural colours” He squinted at Techno, “But I must say it looks pretty good on you” he blushed at the compliment and the whole class turning towards him, “T-thank you, mister”.

As soon as the teacher turned his back, Skeppy bumped him with his elbow, winking at him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While eating lunch, a few friends dropped by to comment on the new style, most of them were compliments… apart from one teacher being very much against it, but it definitely boosted his confidence, so that was nice. 

“Welcome to the hair dyed club!” Niki smiled, inevitably, Techno smiled back, “Thank you…” she sat down in front of him, “I'm jealous you can pull pastel pink off so well, I feel like it wouldn't look as good on me” he nodded, loving to hear his friend ramble, “If you need help with hair-dyed friendly shampoo I can text you some good brands” pulling both their phones out, he took a sip of coffee, “Yes please”.

While they were worried discussing brands, another boy approached the table, breaking the silence, “Looking good Techno” looking up, Dream stared back grinning, “Don't. Ask” the dirty-blonde haired boy wheezed, “I won't- I won't… Can I..?” he pointed at the empty seat, “Oh yeah! Go right ahead!” Niki replied and scooted aside while Techno took Skeppy’s backpack and placed it on the floor next to him.

“Rumors say it was a prank” he nodded at the hair, Niki giggled, “There are already rumours? Bruhh… Which one of you snitched?!” the other two laughed, “I swear it wasn't me!” Skeppy patted Dream’s shoulder as a greeting and sat next to Techno, “The only reason I believe you is because Tommy was involved” Dream chuckled under his breath, “I wouldn't be surprised if Will talked too, he’s way too proud of his pranks” Niki stated, knowing the boy just as well as Techno. 

“Alright, the next colour is electric light-blue, yeah?” “JUST BECAUSE THAT'S THE COLOUR OF YOUR MINECRAFT SKIN-!!!” 

  
  



	23. Chocolate and attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valentine’s day went differently for all of the Pandels, only similar by the lack of a date... Emphasis on the “usually”, since someone had a romantic dinner planned this year, 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Enjoy~

If it wasn't for the fact that Wilbur had already been stopped about five times on the way to his locker, the letters that slid down onto the floor when the door barely opened wouldn't have irritated him, but, since his backpack was getting heavy with homework and chocolate, hand made or bought, it was really starting to annoy him.

Yeah, Wilbur should have gotten used to this kind of things since the first year of high school, even if he had been walking these halls just recently, his valentine’s day was already filled with letters and chocolate, less than the amount he got now of course, but it would have been better if he had gotten used to it, but hey, getting used to popularity and fame isn't so easy for shy and self-conscious types, Wilbur fell right into that category even if more internally than externally.

He wasn’t hating on the people who kindly decided to give him chocolate for Valentine’s day, it was just… one stacking on top of another… Wilbur was starting to get a bit annoyed, good thing class was about to start and he could finally relax, sit down and brainstorm some new lyrics or a melody to try later at home.

He knelt to pick up the letters, reading his name on practically each one, the gaze of passing students burn a hole on his back, “Daaamn Will, you don't have to flex on us that much” Fundy leaned on the wall of blue lockers, crossing his arms, “Like I do it on purpose” he rolled his eyes, his friend chuckled, “Alright, see ya around, playboy” The boy with the pastel-rainbow striped, black hoodie walked off, patting Will on the shoulder as he passed by. 

“Like he’s the one to talk…” Wilbur shook his head slightly, “Fox boy definitely got a few boxes of chocolate too… No way he didn't” he mumbled to himself as he read the repetitive and almost copy-pasted letters, all saying how he was cute, how they liked him...

…

He didn't want to be mean, but he had no interest in any of the girls at school, but if he ignored these letters like he always did, the next day girls would be saying how “Badass” and “too cool for them” he was, which somehow made him more attractive? Girls, try and understand them, you won't.

After quickly reading all the letters, he mumbled a “Sorry” and threw them in the trash can, feeling on one side bad for all of these girls trying to hit on him, and on the other, feeling uncomfortable by the amount of them attempting to.

Fundy did call him a “Playboy”, and not only him that called him so, even if he played it cool, he wished he could be left alone sometimes, just a music boy trying to do music stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Annie gave me chocolate, she said it was thanks for helping her with that math test” Tubbo and Tommy were also walking back to their lockers, chatting about how a classmate had stopped Tubbo at the exit of class and handed him chocolate, “Yeah but at least you got one… “ Tommy huffed, half expecting to be drowning in chocolate by how popular he was, but he was known for his fights after all, so it would make sense that someone kind like Tubbo would get some.

“Do you want me to give you Annie’s? I don’t mind” The boy with the copper-coloured hair asked, “N-no! It was gifted to you! Not me!” Tommy overreacted a bit, “Oh! Ok! I’m sorry!” Tubbo jumped at the loud volume of his voice, “I thought you simply wanted chocolate, not be gifted some by girls” he looked at the ground.

Finally getting to their lockers, they both instantly noticed something taped on Tommy’s one, the contrast of the white paper with the blue background was almost a punch in the eye. 

The blondie grabbed the rectangular object and unwrapped it, his friend looked past his open locker’s door to see what it was.

A wave of panic and happiness washed over Tommy, it was a box of a popular brand of chocolate with a letter on top of it, the boy instantly opened his locker to put down the box and open the letter.

His eyes widened:

_Hi Tommy, I never got to thank you properly for helping me, so I hope the chocolate will be enough._

_Never in my life did I think someone would protect me from bullies like you did, even going the extra mile of getting a punch to the gut on purpose in front of a teacher to get them sent to the principal’s office._

_I appreciate what you did for me and I hopefully will be able to pay you back, not only for this but for all the kindness you have shown me, for now, have my written thanks and a gift, I remember you saying that you liked white chocolate?_

_-Ranboo_

Tubbo had scooted over next to Tommy and started reading the letter too, knowing that the friend wouldn’t have minded, and when they both finished reading, their hearts were almost melting, “Awww man… Ranboo is such a nice guy” Tubbo went back to his locker, getting ready for their next class.

Tommy was half disappointed by the fact it didn’t come from a woman, but Ranboo’s apology was still very cute, he vaguely remembers seeing him surrounded by some good for nothing assholes insulting him for fun, what was he supposed to do? Not intervene?!

Plus, those guys hadn’t only been bullying him, many more people mumbled about this new group of idiots who acted like they were better than everyone, Tommy was going to take them down at one point either way, so there at that moment seemed like a good time. But now that he thought about it, he, Ranboo, and Tubbo had been hanging out a lot, the tall boy was nice, both to be around and to chat to, Tommy did show him around when he transferred there after all. 

Tubbo closed his locker and glanced over at Tommy who was standing still, deep into his own thoughts, “We gotta go Big T or we’ll be late” Tommy absently nodded, placing the letter inside of the locker and closing it, headed to his next class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dude HOW have you gotten chocolate from a cute girl and I HAVEN’T?!” Techno was clutching close to his chest chocolate and a letter, a gift from a girl in his advanced math class, still half-blushing by the compliment on his pink hair, “But you got chocolate too, didn’t you?” Skeppy was throwing his arms left and right, blown away by the situation, “FROM BAD! Not a cute girl!” he groaned, “He can be a cute girl if you think hard enough-” “No Techno, that is just not funny” Techno giggled at the immediate reaction, opening his locker.

  
  


Skeppy was about to open his mouth to complain again when from the corner of his eye, he saw a girl staring right at Techno walking towards him, “Hello Techno!” the boy in question looked at where the voice was coming from to see a girl with pink hair, a darker shade than his, but nonetheless pink. “Oh hello… You’re in my band class I presume… Lillian was it?” she smiled and nodded, “You remember my name! That’s progress, you look good today” he blushed, Skeppy had to look away in order to not laugh, was Techno getting..?

“Oh… uhh…” He scratched the back of his head, “Thank you?” she opened her bag, “Last time I was quite rude with you so I came to apologize…” she pushed her hand deeper in the bag and came out with a red box, “With this!” Techno took the box, “Oh thank you… there was no need to apologize” he inspected the box, Skeppy noticed the girl tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “Well… I also came to ask if you wanted to go get coffee after-”

“Sorry I have to study for an English test” the girl blinked, not expecting to get cut off, “Maybe I could help-” he closed his locker and shook his head, “I’m in the advanced class, you wouldn’t help at all, sorry, have to go to class now, mmbyee!” He turned his back, not leaving her a chance to reply.

Skeppy caught up to him and started laughing hysterically, “DUDE- You didn’t realize?!” he held his stomach as his friend tilted his head to the side, “What?” Techno adjusted his glasses, “SHE WAS HITTING ON YOU DUDE!” Skeppy kept laughing as Techno processed the sentence until they sat down in class and finally realized, “OH” he exclaimed, his entertained friend exclaimed “TECHNO’S OBLIVIOUS NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE TIMES BOYS!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


The Pandel’s laughs filled the living room, “Why did I even bring that up?” Techno took his head between his hands and placed his elbows on the kitchen counter, “I can’t believe you denied the same girl twice…” Phil shook his head and wheezed at the thought, “LOOK- I didn’t do it on purpose!” Wilbur and Tommy were just rolling on the couch laughing, “You- you are something Technoblade!” the blondie exclaimed as the boy with the beanie shook his head and started strumming his guitar, helping everyone calm down.

“Ok boys the results are in!” the older brother caught everyone’s attention, “In third place, we have the gremlin with two boxes of chocolate!” Tommy jumped, “THE NERD GOT MORE THAN ME?!?! And I’m not a gremlin” he frowned and crossed his arms, “In second place, we have Technomate with three boxes!" The pink-haired boy rolled his eyes, “Let’s hear how many Will got this year…” a shift from Tommy’s direction indicated that he was even more mad that Techno surpassed him by one, “And in first place we have… roll of drums please!” Wilbur tapped on his guitar to make the drum roll, “Wilbur! With SEVENTEEN BOXES HOLY SHIT!” Tommy’s jaw dropped while Techno exclaimed “HEH?!” 

They all turned to the boy who kept on playing his guitar like nothing happened, “Got four less than last year” he mumbled before shaking his head and laughing softly, smirking “At least we don’t have to buy chocolate for a while” Phil and Techno sighed while the gremlin started barking, angry he didn’t get the same type of love from the girls of the school.

After about ten minutes of chit chatters, the house fell into a calm state:

Wilbur had brought in the living room his music notebook, an antique-looking white-paged book gifted to him by Techno for his birthday, he used it to write melodies and lyrics on-the-go or in class, the musician never left the house without it. 

Trying out new melodies filled the living room with notes, strangely enough, the abrupt stops or huffs from the boy didn’t bother the rest of the brothers, allowing if not encouraging him, to remain in the shared room for everyone to hear the process-making of new tunes.

Techno and Tommy were sitting at the kitchen counter, the younger annoying the older, and vice versa, the oldest helping the younger, if they needed to communicate, they used ASL (American Sign Language) to avoid disturbing Will. 

No one had paid attention nor questioned why Phil had started cooking so early in the evening, the fizzling and smell only added to the atmosphere, but all the boys looked up when he came out of Tommy’s room (where he stored his clothes) in a very elegant outfit, “What the fuck are you wearing Philza Minecraft?” Tommy spat out as soon as he saw him, Phil laughed, “A suit with a striped tie? I thought I lost it when moving here… I’m impressed I still fit in it…” he stretched his arms to look at the suit and entered the bathroom to use the mirror, leaving the door open to hear his brothers better, “Looking fancy… Don’t tell me you have a date Philza Minecraft!” Wilbur said mockingly, smirking at the thought of his big brother on a date, impossible.

“I do actually!” he shouted from the bathroom while combing his hair accurately. Techno spat out a bit of coffee after hearing that, “Oh come on you dickheads, you should be happy from me!” Tommy was shocked, “Oh- well- w-we are! It’s just- Who? Who would want to DATE you Phil?” a shocked noise came from the bathroom “WHAT?!”, a few quiet sprays followed, “I am a good-looking man what do you MEAN?!” the pink-haired boy had finally dried all of the coffee he had spat out, “We never said that… we just want to know who is going on the date with you” the bathroom lights turned off and a whiff of Phil’s pungent pine-flavoured cologne invaded the living room, “I am going out with Kristen, your-” without the time of finishing the sentence, Tommy yelled, “Ms. Kristen??? The substitute teacher???” Techno spat out his coffee again. 

Wilbur’s expression switched between a shocked one and a grin, finally settling on a proud smirk, “Phil you… I’m so proud of you man!” The boy with the glasses agreed with a “Yeah…”, grabbing a cloth for a second time this evening to clean up the coffee mess.

“I should be going” Phil fixed his tie and checked the clock on the wall, “I still need to go grab roses…” Tommy hopped off his seat, “Roses? Aww Phil you- You big romantic man!” he elbowed Phil’s arm, passing next to him to enter his room, the older blondie rolled his eyes and approached the front door, slipping on his jacket and grabbing his set of keys plus the car’s one, “I’m grabbing your car Will” the boy hummed in response, distracted by his phone.

“Alright, I’m going out for dinner, I shouldn’t be out too late, but don’t wait for me to come back either way” Tommy emerged from his room, leaning on the doorframe, “I’ve made you crepes for dinner, they are in the fridge, just slap them into the microwave and they’re good to eat” finally slipping his shoes on, he patted his pockets to double-check for keys and phone, and opened the door, “Behave you three!” 

A chorus of “Bye Phil!” accompanied him out the door, as soon as the click indicated the closing of it, the house fell into silence again. Tommy sat back at the counter to continue studying, Techno finally drank a sip of coffee and Will tossed his phone next to him, filling the living room with soft melodies once again.

  
  



	24. Girls and Pigs night out: The pink side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niki has a regrowth, and differently from Techno, she has so many options of different colours she can't decide what to pick... But what if she joined the “Pink side”?
> 
> ~~
> 
> Enjoy~

If lunchtime wasn’t pestered by Skeppy’s loudness or Dream’s comforting presence, there were three other ways his lunch could go:

Eating alone was out of the question, for some reason he hadn’t eaten a meal alone for months now.

Tommy and Wilbur could swing by, but that was also pretty rare, the gremlin was never alone or in need to sit with someone at lunch, so when Tommy approached his table meant he was either feeling down and needed to talk, he craved the solitude sitting next to a reading Techno provided, or, he needed to give the pink-haired boy a message.

The musician also rarely sat at his table, more often than Tommy but nonetheless rarely. His reasons were also usually involving his mood, he either needed to talk to his brother or he just missed a place where his goofy social mask could be placed on the table and allow him to rest, the family was one of those places, hence, Techno’s table.

The last option was Niki, at every lunch she would change seat or table, making her someone everyone loved being around, and sometimes if he was lucky, the inner wheel with which she chose where to sit would land on his table, and so his friend appeared. 

Techno would be lying though if he said his dear friend didn’t also use him as a safe space, he could notice if someone wasn’t feeling amazing, and Niki’s smile was true, but sometimes heavy to keep.

Right now she was sitting in front of him, him reading, her scrolling, enjoying each other’s company, “How come most of the noise muffles whenever I’m sitting here?” the boy smirked at the question.

That’s another reason why everyone used his table as a resting oasis, the noises of the cafeteria magically muffled when sitting down at his table, even if it wasn’t near any wall or corner, actually, it was a pretty central spot.

No one ever found out how or why, but Techno, upon finding it, made this his usual spot, craving silence during the pauses.

“It’s my incredibly strong aura” he gestured a circle with his arms, making Niki giggle, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was” she took a bite of her sandwich, “Mpf- What colour and brand is your hair dye?” She covered her mouth to ask, “Uhh…” he looked up, “Either pastel pink or cotton candy… the brand is that weird french-named one” Niki nodded as she kept chewing, and as she swallowed her last piece of the meal, she sighed.

Techno looked up at her and squinted, she shook her head, he squinted harder, she sighed, “Ok fine! I’m stuck on a decision”. “Mhm'' the boy took a sip of coffee, “I can tell.” she groaned, hinting a smile, “I am having a regrowth as you can see” Niki took a strand of hair in her hand, “Aaand you can’t decide whether to change colour or leave it the same” he finished her sentence and she moved her tray aside to sprawl on the table, “Ah yes,” he said to cheer her up, “The question I ask myself whenever I have a regrowth” she turned her head to face him, “But your decision is easier! You have to choose between pink or brown meanwhile I have too many options!” he nodded as if to say “fair enough” and went back to reading.

“Technooooo” the call was muffled due to her facing the table, “Help meeeee” he sighed and closed his book, “Fine, not that I wasn’t expecting you to ask me” she groaned again as the bell ending lunchtime rang, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” the girl instantly complained, gaining an amused chuckle from Techno who got up from his seat.

“Don’t worry” he pushed his glasses in anime style, “Wait for me at the entrance after school, I’m taking you to Starbucks and then we’ll figure out your problem” she snapped up “Thank you Technooo!” he just smiled and waved at her as he headed to class. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two teens were said to be complete opposites, and yet, if you looked at them walking side to side, usually with a drink in their hand, they looked like the perfect friends, those types of friends who had each other’s back no matter what and would move the world for the other.

“So we’re going with electric green right?”, “Oh come on Techno!” They giggled, the boy placed the box of dye back, “I was thinking about a pastel colour” she said, scanning the shelves accurately, “No green though?” She smiled at the joke, “No, not for now at least” she picked up a box, “This is yours, right?” She pointed at the article in her hands, Techno nodded, slipping his phone out of his pocket to check for important messages, “I don’t want to do purple again…” the girl mumbled, “Do pink then” Techno said, not focusing at all on the task at hand.

She looked back at the box of his friend’s dye, “Cotton candy pink” said the label, “Join the pink side” he giggled at his own joke, but Niki was absorbed in her own thoughts: Was pink that bad of an idea though?

“I think I will” Niki agreed instantly, though Techno didn’t hear and continued his evil speech, “Yes… join the dark- wait really?!” he turned off his phone upon registering the friend’s reply.

“Yeah” she finally took her gaze off of the box, shifting it to her friend “I mean… Why not?” the boy shrugged.

“You going to use mine or..?” he slipped his phone away and moved closer to Niki, “I love yours, but no...” with a finger, she went through her options, “But most pastel’s do look the same… changing brand won’t do much…” with that said Techno turned his head a little and took a box off the shelf, “What about this one?” he showed her a more intense and slightly darker pink, she accepted the box, “Ooh… this looks good” she turned the package to get more information, “We could stay light with it and still get something pastel-ish” he proposed, she nodded, paused and then shook her head, “No no…” Techno raised a brow, “I like it just how it is, I’ve decided!” she exclaimed as she had finally settled on something and he nodded, giving her full support on the decision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So boy bands or twenty-ten throwback hits?” The girl placed two glasses full of cherry iced tea as the boy was looking through his phone, “Oh that’s a hard one” she brought her hand to her chin as she reflected, “what do you prefer Techno?”, he shrugged, “Depends if I have to answer in front of people or not” he answered, with a smirk on his face, Niki giggled, “There is nothing wrong about liking boybands as a boy!” she opened her backpack and grabbed the hair dye, unpacking the products, “Not when your brothers bully you because of it” Techno took a sip of the red-ish liquid and rolled his eyes. 

He got up and gestured Niki to the chair in the middle of the room, placed so that Techno could walk around it easily, as she sat down, he put on a pair of surgeon gloves and elegantly wrapped a towel around his friend’s neck, “Hello ma’am what can I do for you today?” She giggled, going along with the joke, “I’ve come here to dye my hair, I’ve heard great things about your salon so I came here to try it myself!” He smiled, grabbing a brush and untangling her hair carefully, “Mind pouring the colour in the bowl while I do this?” Techno handed her the box and the bowl, carefully pouring the electric pink she admired the shade one more time, “Are you still sure about this one?” The boy behind him asked, already at work with the bleach.

She looked at the bowl in her lap one more time before answering a proud yes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her colour wasn’t fully settled in yet, they were watching a film while they waited for the timer to run off, Tubbo and Eret were both back home.

Niki was sitting on a chair right next to the couch to avoid staining it (like she did once before), Tubbo was leaning on the arm of the couch, completely engulfed by a fluffy blanket and Techno was sitting next to him with a pillow in his lap, underneath the sound of tire screeching and actors yelling from the intense scene, Eret’s soft humming accompanied him while cooking, “Techno are you staying for dinner?” the boy looked at the time, it was fair Eret was asking, it was six pm.

“Nah, there’s no way I’m skipping Phil’s homemade fries” his gaze went back to his phone, weird… Wilbur hadn’t texted him yet, he usually yelled at him if he wasn’t home before six… he was probably working on his music: the only thing that made him unaware of time passing. 

“Phil’s making fries?!” Tubbo jumped, making Techno jump as well, “Awwww I’m so jealous! They are so good!” he squirmed as much as he could under the sushi-blanket roll, Niki giggled, “Well you should go then Techno, Will is gonna be worried-” and as soon as his name was vocalized, a burst of notifications exploded from the pink-haired boy’s phone, he sighed as everyone else laughed, “Your hair though… you good on doing the rest alone?” 

Techno pouted, if he had to be honest, he didn’t want to leave. The Berry’s home was a break from the chaos of his own. Yes, Tubbo could be loud, but without someone pushing him into acting so, he was quite calm, making that apartment a full-on oasis for Techno.

The boy got up and brought his empty glass to the counter, “I’ll be leaving then” Eret nodded as he moved it in the sink, “Bye Techno! See you tomorrow!” Tubbo didn’t move his gaze from the tv while saying that, Niki instead got up and accompanied him to the door, “I’ll send you a selfie once I've washed it” she smiled and he did back, picking up his backpack and swinging it over his shoulder, “See ya tomorrow” she nodded and closed the door behind him.

As soon as he left the building, his phone started buzzing, “Hello-” “WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU TECHNOBLADE???”.

Tilting his phone away to avoid losing his hearing from his older brother scream, he zipped up his jacket, “On my way home, I was at the Berry’s place” the air was pretty chilly today even if the sun wasn’t fully set yet, it just went to show how cold the past few days were. 

“You’re still in time to go eat with them then” Techno’s brows furrowed, “Phil called in a few minutes ago saying he won’t be home till late and to not wait for him to eat, and you know what that means…”.

Microwaving yesterday’s leftovers… that was definitely a change from the mouthwatering homemade fries… 

“So? Eating at the Berry’s sounds like a plan now? Turn around while you can~” the boy smiled at the sung last word, but his feet kept walking him forward, “Nah, I’ll come home either way…” he smiled as an idea popped into mind, “Actually…” it was Wilbur’s turn to sound confused, “If you put on some water to boil I can cook us some pasta”.

And apparently, the older brother had him on speaker since a distant cheer burst from his younger brother at the word “pasta”.

  
  



End file.
